Envy is a Curse
by Vague Notion
Summary: There's something oddly satisfying about the feeling he gets when he kicks Hiccup in the ribs. Slash, not for Snotlout fans, info inside.
1. Snotlout Decides

I don't think I've ever dorked out about a movie as much as I have for this one. For some bizarre reason, I am shamelessly obsessed. And what's not to love? I'm sure that you agree, since you're reading a How To Train Your Dragon fanfic. So I'll just dive right in then.

**Info**: Hiccup has stumbled his way into Viking history, and into the heart of Astrid. And while their relationship is relatively platonic, Snotlout can't handle sitting on the sidelines and watching anymore. Taking matters into his own hands, he decides to get our Littlest Viking Hero out of the way once and for all.

**Warnings**: Violence, language, blood

--x--

_Introduction - in which Snotlout has a revelation._

Snotlout's POV:

It's about damn time these people start recognizing all I do for them. And why is it so hard, I wonder, for _any_ of them to recognize it? I break my _back_ just to show them how great I can be, how I would make such a great Viking leader. But _no_, they all decided to flock to that little cripple runt, to fawn over him for "saving us all". Um, hel_lo_? It was _me_ up on that great dragon's head, _me_ bashing it's eyes in. And did anyone even _notice_ how I totally jumped off onto the twin's dragon in _mid-air_?!

No, of course they didn't. Because Wonder Boy decided to show up and steal all the spotlight for himself. If I had known that little shit was going to ruin my shot at fame, I would have drop-kicked him off a cliff and let him freeze to death in the ocean.

... Heh. That's actually a pretty good idea. And don't look at me like that. What, you think I can't come up with stuff? I'm smart, you know. Just the cool-smart. Not loser-smart.

Like _Hiccup_. Damn him to hell, there and back so I can send him there all over again. What has he ever done that's so great? I could have killed that huge-ass dragon if I wanted to. I could have done it without losing my _leg_.

And Astrid. Astrid! She was _my girl_, and she gets swept off her feet by someone who can't even lift a sword with one hand! What on earth, what in _Thor's name_ is so attractive about Hiccup that she would choose him over me? I'm like, the _perfect_ viking, how can she not see that? Plus, my dragon is about a billion times cooler looking that that dumb Night Fury. I could take Hiccup in a fight, with or without dragons!

... Though, maybe it might be faster without. And more inconspicuous. (Haha, see? Big word. _Told_ you.) So I think that's just what I'm going to do.

--x--

_Chapter one - in which the chase begins._

Hiccup had gotten used to the taste of earth. He had fallen from Toothless' back while trainings so many times that the soil and grass and pond water had almost become a complete part of his diet.

So why now was it so hard to stomach? The small Viking struggled to push himself back to his feet, to overcome the vertigo of tumbling head over heel upon hitting the ground. But the world shook and tilted dangerously beneath him, and he lurched to the left, collapsing back down. Head twirling, he rolled onto his back stiffly and stared up at the sky in a daze. The gloaming of the late evening filled the air above him, occupying the rare and brief days of summer that could actually be considered warm. A flash of black swept over him, but he couldn't bring himself to look around to see what it was. Part of him knew, anyway.

Something nudged his right arm, prompting him to close his eyes tightly. He didn't want to move, not after that. An ache was forming up his left arm as another nudge shifted his right. The flat, warm surface stayed against the limb this time, and a rumbling coo filled the buzz of summer air. At the tail-end of the moan, the pitch rose suddenly in a curious manner. _What's wrong?_

"Aaugh," Hiccup groaned, letting his tone shift to unsteady laughter. "Nothing, buddy. Just hurt my arm that time."

Familiar with the fragility of humans - especially his - Toothless, looked down at the arm Hiccup was holding before raising his pale eyes back up to his face. Then, after a moment of consideration while watching Hiccup stand, he rose back to his normal height and turned, offering Hiccup a chance to mount the saddle.

"Thanks," the human muttered, climbing up onto his back while minding the arm. It throbbed, just enough for Hiccup to notice, but not enough for him to care. After all, he was a Viking: prone to injury, danger, pain. The thought made him smile a bit, knowing how foolish it was to ignore an injury, but not caring. His father wouldn't want to hear him whine, after all.

"Let's go then," he sighed, "I bet I can guess what dinner we're about to miss."

His smile remained, aware that they had the same thing almost every night: meat. Toothless gurgled a sort of response before pushing off the ground, taking flight easily with the aid of the warm wind. As the earth dropped farther and farther away, Hiccup wrinkled his nose and turned his head away from the wind, spitting out some dirt and watching it fly into the great blue that surrounded them. The small bit of spit glinted in the sun as Toothless banked left toward Berk, the thirty minute walk cutting short to a five minute fly over all the trees and boulders. It was a beautiful evening, spit and dirt aside, and somewhere deep in Hiccup's chest, he felt a rush of happiness surge up to comfort the pain in his arm.

"I'm sure it's nothing," he said in regards to his arm, leaning forward so that Toothless could hear. With the exception of an ear twitch, the dragon made no sign that he was listening.

"And anyway, if it is something, then I'll probably find out in training. And then it'll look like I got it there." Then, with some thought, he added, "Hey, maybe Astrid will think that's cool. Ya think?"

Toothless groaned and dropped into a descent as the peaks of houses came into view beyond the tree line. Hiccup leaned back, lost in his own head, and watched the village spread itself out as they drew near.

Without warning, Toothless tucked his wings in and made a sudden barrel roll to the left, drawing a startled cry straight out of Hiccup's chest. Flailing, the boy struggled for a minute before Toothless righted himself, giving the young Viking an opportunity to get his grip.

"What the hell, Toothless?!" Hiccup cried, eyes narrowing accusingly before the intense heat of a fireball blew passed him, traveling skyward. He cried out again, his voice breaking into a squeak. Snapping his head around, he saw a blur of red shooting toward him before Toothless dove, spiraling into a tight screw-dive. Overcoming the shock, Hiccup threw his body forward into position, bracing for the ridiculous amount of maneuvering that the Night Fury was capable of.

A skin-ripping roar followed them down toward the tree tops before Toothless leveled into a horizontal fly. Taking his chance, Hiccup looked up and over his shoulder at the familiar dragon, surprised that every inch of the Monstrous Nightmare was on fire. From experience, he had learned that they old did that when extremely angry, and to his knowledge there hadn't been any news of bitter dragons lately. So what was going on?

The wind pulled at his hair now, making him work to stay in position and not be blown clear off of Toothless' back.

"We have to get away from the village!" Hiccup called over the rush of air. Almost immediately, Toothless banked left again and shot back out over the trees in the direction they had come, toward the unpopulated side of the island. The Nightmare released another cry and made suit, not built for flying as fast as a Fury, but without the mentality to accept defeat. Unable to shake it without changing course and heading out to sea, they kept their distance and avoiding the one fireball it spat at them with ease.

"You've got to be kidding me," Hiccup groaned, having since overcome the shock of the initial attack. He loosened his grip on the handles of the saddle before the terrible realization caught up with him; his arm was throbbing. Having been knocked around even further when the Nightmare made itself known, the pain was twice as terribly as it had originally been. Tucking it against his stomach and leaning over it, Hiccup held fast to the saddle and clenched his teeth.

"We have to lose this thing, Toothless," he said, his voice low enough for the dragon to pick up on the severity of the situation. Without both hands, Hiccup couldn't fly well, and with the pain distracting the human (as Hiccup was prone to any sort of distraction,) it wouldn't bode well to challenge the Monstrous Nightmare.

Toothless gave a swift nod and burst into a faster speed. Eventually, the thing would tire out and stop it's chase. As the thought presented itself to Hiccup, however, a familiar voice echoed passed them.

"Too _coward_ to face me, Hiccup?"

--x--

Well, the first chapter to my first story is officially done. I hope it's not too long for anyone. If it is, please let me know. D: Also, I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.

Please Review!


	2. Toothless Roars

Wow, thank you all so much for the reviews and encouragement! I've had an account on this site before, but the fandom was so dead that it took months just to get one review. I was really pleased to find how interested you guys are in finding out what happens. So I wrote the next chapter early!

... Yay? Enjoy. :3

--x--

_Chapter two - in which Toothless loses his purchase._

__"Too _coward_ to face me, Hiccup?"

The small viking swiveled on the saddle, turning his face around to find the source of the voice. Though the wind tugging at his auburn hair made it difficult to tell, he swore he could spot someone riding on the Nightmare's back. Until, of course, the beast opened it's jaws wide and shot another ball of fire at them.

Toothless swooped out of the way easily enough, righting himself at a higher altitude. The elevation allowed Hiccup to check again, and the sight rose his eyebrows in surprise.

"_Snotlout_?" he called, lifting off of Toothless's back to see better. "What are you doing?!"

The cry managed to make it to Snotlout's ears, for he leaned forward and lifted an ax toward Hiccup. Confused, the petite Viking looked back around momentarily before a fireball suddenly roared over him. Throwing himself down, he clung to Toothless's back as the intense heat passed by.

Over all the noise, he could register a shadow fall over him, and a harsh chill raced down his spine before he felt it. Something huge and thick and hot wrapped square around his torso and yanked upward, so suddenly that he couldn't react properly. Torn from Toothless's back, Hiccup let out a cry of shock and kicked, reaching desperately for the saddle as it drew farther and farther away.

The Monstrous Nightmare had somehow caught up with them, through the confusion of dodging a fireball, and had snagged Hiccup right off of the Night Fury.

Needless to say, Toothless dipped into a frenzy as the weight of his rider vanished. He thrashed around in the air, looking for Hiccup with wide eyes, before spotting him at last, struggling in the talons of the Nightmare.

"Toothless!" Hiccup screamed, reaching in the dragon's direction with one hand while prying at the talons with the other. He watched, helpless and terrified, as the tail fin attached to Toothless's tail snapped shut. In spite of every effort he made, Toothless flopped uselessly through the air and lost altitude rapidly, plummeting down toward the treetops. His cries echoed passed Hiccup's ears, nearly drawing tears of sheer horror to his eyes.

"No!" He screamed, as the Nightmare banked left and pulled Hiccup farther and farther from the falling Night Fury, still struggling to fly to him. He clawed pointlessly at the talons, completely forgetting about the state of his left arm as he scrambled for freedom. Never mind the plummet that awaited him if he should get free; his mind was only focused on reaching Toothless and kicking down on the tail fin so that the Night Fury wouldn't fall.

Something shook him roughly and he gagged, his weight dragging down so that the force of the tug was all on his stomach and chest. It stilled him, leaving him gasping as the world shook. So much blood had run to his head that he couldn't see straight, leaving him in a haze of panic.

"Toothless!"

--x--

Tree branches tore passed him, snapping on contact. The sleek black body plummeted down into the forest, catching itself in the last second by spreading its wings and catching an upward draft of air. The impact, however, was just as violent and painful as he had imagined it would be; smash, turn, flop, roll, stop. It took several long seconds for Toothless to push himself up, his legs shaking under his own weight. Regaining his equilibrium after an awkward stumble to his left, the Night Fury whipped around in the direction he had fallen, eyes scanning the trees and sky for Hiccup.

Nothing.

A roar, pained and terrified, erupted out of Toothless's chest. His human was no where, not in the branches, the sky, or in the clearing that surrounded him. With ears twitching upward to pick up any kind of sound, Toothless began an awkward stumble through the undergrowth of the forest. He recovered from the fall quickly, having learned how to crash land in the short days when he had no help from Hiccup to fly. Barreling through the trees, over fallen logs and boulders, Toothless drove onward, all the while roaring and crying out for Hiccup.

--x--

The earth was hard all year long. Never once in Berk had Hiccup ever encountered soft ground, and rarely did he find actual _mud_ far from a body of water. It was great for running, great for building on, and great for landing a dragon on. But not good for landing on himself.

The wind was knocked clear out of his lungs as he hit the ground, rolling about three feet before stopping face down. The Monstrous Nightmare circled once before smashing to the ground a dozen yards away, rearing its head back with a vicious cry. As Hiccup pushed himself to his elbows and tried to catch his breath, he could hear the smaller _thump_of Snotlout dismounting his dragon. Green eyes lifted to find the offending individual, who was stalking toward him with a sneer on his face.

"Sno-" Hiccup started, before shoving himself to his feet and wincing at the wave of pain that shot through his arm. "Snotlout, why did you do that?! Toothless can't fly without me, I need to find hi-"

A first connected hard with the side of his face, sending him back to the ground. For a moment his vision failed him, and he felt almost completely numb, before the pain caught up with him and he scrambled to get away from the elder boy.

"Ow! What the hell?!"

"Shut up, _loser_," Snotlout growled, advancing threateningly. His meaty hand had been balled into fists, so tight that the white of his knuckles stood in sharp contrast to the backdrop of forest behind them. Hiccup crab-crawled backwards, eyes widening as he realized Snotlout's intention.

"No, wait, stop!" he demanded, somehow shoving himself to his feet. To his remote surprise, the elder stopped and considered him a moment before turning back to his own dragon.

"Go find that overgrown newt and tear it to shreds. I don't want it interfering."

Hiccup's eyes widened at the bitter words. The dragon looked back and forth between the two humans before moving into a take-off stance, prompting Hiccup to dive forward. He _had_ to stop that Nightmare from finding Toothless. He could do it, after all; he had helped to train all the dragons. They all _knew_ him.

But a strong arm caught him by the back of the bearskin vest and flung him around before he had a chance to get near it. It took off, rearing up into the sky before vanishing over the trees, leaving Hiccup alone with Snotlout.

"So," the latter began, smiling down at Hiccup who pushed his palms against the ground, hoping to get up, "it's about damn time I did this."

--x--

I know, I know. No one likes a cliffhanger. Except, of course, authors who hope it'll have people coming back to read more!

Please review!


	3. Hiccup Screams

Okay! Here's another chapter. I do have some stuff to address though, just to answer some of the reviews:

First of all, this **is not **a character death fic. A character abuse fic, yes. Violence fic? Yes. Injury fic? Hell yes. But not a death fic. So no worries there.

Also, I hate to let down those of you who like hard-core slash -- Thor knows I can be one of them. But for the **time being**, this is not going to be really heavy. I don't think. Maybe. I'm bad at speculating.

I also made this chapter longer, because it might take me a few days extra to update. I don't know this for _sure_, but it's a just-in-case.

Anyway, here's the chapter. I'll stop stalling. Thanks everyone who reviewed the last one(s), hope you like it enough to review again!

--x--

_Chapter three - in which Hiccup takes a swim._

Snotlout was about three times the size of Hiccup. Not necessarily in height, but in many other aspects: his hands were huge, his feet were broad, his muscles were bulging. In contrast to the scrawny little son-of-the-chief Viking before him, his build was _existent_. Hiccup could turn sideways and vanish, for the Gods' sake.

His fists balled dangerously as he lumbered forward, his shadow casting itself over Hiccup while the younger and much smaller male cowered on the ground.

"Snotlout, listen," he was blathering, eyes searching desperately for some sort of humanity in the elder's face, "I don't know why you're upset, but I _promise_ you it probably has _nothing_ to do with me. R-remember when your dad almost died in that fight, and you got really upset and shoved me into the mud that one time? And then you felt bad afterward and apologized?"

Hiccup was crawling backwards as he spoke, unaware how quickly he was closing in on the thick trunk of a tree. He let out a small yelp as his back bumped into it, his eyes looking around wildly for escape.

"I _apologized_ because my father _made me_," Snotlout spat, his hulking form heaving as he drew in deep breaths. "_Not_ because I give a shit about 'iddy-bitty little Hiccup'."

"Y-y-yes, but then you were _nice_ to me for a while, remember?"

"Shut up!"

_Smack_. The first fist made contact with the side of Hiccup's head, sending the slight male to his side on the ground. Disoriented, he only curled into a half-ball as Snotlout brought his foot forward, crashing it blindly into the body before him. There was something oddly satisfying about the feeling he got what he kicked Hiccup in the ribs; it was as if a weight was lifting from his back. It drove him to swing his leg again, and again once more, before he stopped and looked down at his work.

Hiccup couldn't breath. His lungs burned, his ribs ached, and when he finally managed to draw air in through his mouth, the pain only increased. He balled tighter on the ground, hoping to somehow hide within himself so that Snotlout couldn't keep hurting him.

A huge hand wrapped around the back of his bearskin vest and hoisted him effortlessly into the air. His arms wrapped around his chest to cope with the pain while he hung there limply.

"You're pathetic." Hot breath billowed into his face, prompting him to open his eyes. Snotlout's nose pushed against his, the other so close that Hiccup felt even smaller in comparison.

There was a blur as his weight shifted, before he was flying. For the briefest of moments, Hiccup felt near weightless, before he crashed into earth once again and rolled twice. Coming to a stop facing Snotlout's direction, he could see the older male stalking toward where he had landed. Terrified, he somehow threw his weight to his feet and began to run, blindly, in the opposite direction.

"Hiccup!" Snotlout yelled, aggravated that his target was attempting to flee. He made chase almost immediately, but for whatever reason, Hiccup wasn't giving up. It wasn't the first time he had pushed Hiccup around - albeit certainly the _worst_ - and the small Viking had always been fast to submit, just to get it over with.

Not this time. Hiccup pumped his legs as fast and as hard as he could, adrenaline shoving him forward through low-hanging branches and over fallen logs. The wind tugged the hair out of his eyes, but he wasn't looking where he was going: he just wanted Snotlout to vanish behind him. He wanted to get away.

He wasn't certain how far he had gone. His legs were beginning to tire, as he was never a strong runner, and now he only really had _one_ to tire in the first place. The length of run-time was expectedly short. While the mantra of '_No, no no!_' screamed in his mind, his could feel his muscles wearing out.

Something caught the hook of his prosthetic leg and sent him to the ground. Though quick to struggle to back up, he couldn't get it lose from the trap it was in.

"No, no!" He gasped, finally releasing the buildup of panic with words. He tugged helplessly before the leg suddenly detached from his own, sending him flying forward back into the dirt. He gagged some, terrified at the feel of the weight vanishing from his left leg. He could see, in the blur of his vision, a large blue expanse before him; he had reached an open cliff by the sea.

He had run farther from the village.

The hefty footfalls of Snotlout were catching up fast. Gasping and spluttering, Hiccup pushed himself to his one foot and hopped twice before falling back down. His chest burned, a white-hot pain he hadn't quite experienced before. His head throbbed. Crawling pathetically, he dragged himself farther into the clearing before he felt the hands grab hold of his vest from behind.

"Gotcha!" Snotlout cried, a crazed happiness clinging to his words. Hiccup let loose a terrified cry and twisted under the weight of the hands as they dragged him up into the air.

"What's the matter, cripple, lost your leg?" The sneer was directly beside his ear, drawing another cry out of Hiccup's small chest.

"Ah! No, stop, lemmego!" He flailed, his small fists punching the air in an attempt to free himself. Snotlout laughed and shook him violently before Hiccup dropped out of his vest and collapsed back to the ground.

"Ah, is the little girl crying?" Snotlout laughed cruelly, "Where's your dragon now, cripple?"

--x--

Toothless turned sharply, releasing the buildup of heat and gases from his chest directly into the Nightmare's face. The red scaly thing reared back, releasing a pained roar before falling back to his feet. It clambered to its clawed feet, wings fluttering in rage and anticipation for battle, but as it turned back toward the Night Fury, it found nothing.

Toothless had no time to waste on such petty matters. How could another dragon engage him now? His human was missing, in danger, _dead_! For all the Night Fury knew, Hiccup was drawing his last timid breath as he raced through the forest. His huge scaled feet pounded the dirt, the boulders, the plants. He pushed up off of a tree trunk and dove for a sturdy branch, landing on it and pushing off in one motion. The limb snapped in two just as his weight left it, as did the next branch and then next. As he moved higher, there was less to slow him down, and so he moved faster.

It was around the twelfth branch that he heard it: the faint, terrified cry of Hiccup. His hearth thumped harder inside his cavernous chest as he raced onward, opening his mouth wide to release a roar he didn't know he was holding back.

He - Hiccup - was near the cliffs. And he wasn't alone, not if the Nightmare that had snagged him back in the woods and Hiccup was still yelling. Quickly running out of sturdy trees as he neared his destination, Toothless spread his wings and lifted upward for a brief, precious minute. The tunnel of air carried him long enough for him to focus on the ground below. Pale green eyes scanned the forest in a panic fit only to a dragon, finally reaching the cliffs ahead. Nothing, nothing, trees, more nothing - Hiccup! There, with another human creature!

Suddenly, the wind failed him, and Toothless felt the weightlessness of flight drawn away. Flopping, he released another roar and plummeted back through the trees, his limbs flailing before he found traction against some low, sturdy branches. Again, he pushed off, even more driven to reach his charge.

--x--

The thick tow of a boot connected hard with Hiccup's side, this time the opposite of the side that had been kicked before. It threw him around onto his back, lying mere feet from the cliff. He coughed, gasping, and opened his eyes wide only to find Snotlout diving onto him. His landing was awkward and hasty, and his weight produced a grotesque snap from somewhere along Hiccup's left arm. A shrill scream of pain hurtled out of the boy's chest as Snotlout straddled him and pushed his hands down onto Hiccup's, pinning them above his head harshly. The crushing grip was enough to snap Hiccup's index and middle finger on his left hand, drawing forth another scream.

Snotlout was panting hard, so much adrenaline pumping through him that his head reeled from the sheer thrill of it all. Finally, he stopped and looked at his victim, looked at the tears streaming down his face, his flushed cheeks, his emerald eyes opening and closing as his mouth contorted in pain. He looked so weak, pathetic, helpless. He looked so fragile.

He looked beautiful.

As the thought crept into the haze of Snotlout's mind, he blinked. His face fell blank for a brief moment, considering the alien thought with nothing short of astonishment. B-... Beautiful? Why had he thought that...?

"Sn-Sn-Snot-" Hiccup was, for lack of a less fitting term, hiccupping, "-Stop! Please, get off!"

To Snotlout's horror, it all made sense. The jealousy, the irrational hate, the desperate thought that he _needed_ Astrid. He didn't even really _like_ her, now that he thought if it. She was a bitch. With every pass he made, she made a more compelling point of turning him down. He _knew_ she didn't like him, and for it he had given up liking her, but he couldn't stop trying to get her; after all, who else could he like?

"Snotlout!" Hiccup was pleading, the pain of his injuries driving him further to tears. He hated crying; it wasn't Viking-like at all. But something about the way Snotlout was looking at him terrified him, and along with the pain, he couldn't help it.

Snotlout's face shifted from astonishment to a glare that darkened with each heaving breath he took. What was he thinking? No _way_ did he think anything _near_ that with Hiccup! He was a pathetic little-... Little... Crippled_fag_!

The larger male drew as much air into his lungs as he could and released it a menacing, feral roar. With one twist of his body, with all his muscles contracting in perfect harmony, he lurched to his left and flung Hiccup directly up and over the edge of the cliff.

He stumbled to his feet and stood at the edge of the rock face, his eyes watching the boy fall farther and farther away.

"_Toothless!_"

The scream echoed up passed him as Hiccup plunged, practically head first, into the freezing, frothing waters below. There was a horrible pause as Snotlout scanned the waves before a mop of brown hair burst up out of the water. He could hear, just faintly, the spluttering and coughing before another cry for his dragon made its way out of Hiccup's mouth.

Snotlout was daring to lean forward when a blur of black shot passed him, barreling downward into the icy ocean. Stumbling, the bulking Viking looked with wide eyes as Toothless shot into the water several feet from Hiccup's thrashing form, before the human vanished beneath the waves. With a racing heart, Snotlout watched the water below for a long moment before the Night Fury shot back out of the waves, his short front limbs wrapped tightly around Hiccup's limp form.

Unable to bare the situation, Snotlout turned on his heal, and ran, stopping only to snag Hiccup's prosthetic leg.

--x--

This chapter... did _not_ turn out the way I thought it would. I _wanted_this to happen, you see, but normally what I want to write and what I actually write never parallel each other. So I'm very happy with this. And don't worry about when the next update will come; I wouldn't leave you guys hanging for long. D:

Please review!


	4. Hiccup Aches

Not wasting any time with updating this, I guess. Oh well; it'll keep me sane through this week, if nothing else. I just saw the movie a second time the other day, and I was wondering; did any of you notice how freakishly small Hiccup's hands are compared to Snotlouts? In that one scene here he's passing off the Nightmare to him, Hiccup's hands are literally a third of the size. Just saying.

To address some of the reviews; (thank you _so so much_, by the way, all of you,) Yes, this will be one-sided. I can't for the life of me think why or how I could make this mutual. Not after that. Also, don't worry about Snotlout; he'll get his eventually. We reap what we sew, after all.

Also, I apologize for anything that's out of place time-wise. It's hard to write essays for school about pop-culture and then switch to writing this. xD Some thing might be off. Sorry.

**HEY:** Am I updating too quickly? I know that sounds like a stupid question because you guys all keep asking for updates, (again, thank you so much,) but I'm serious. I'm not sure how long this story will be, but if do you guys want me to pace myself more?

Longer chapter is longer. Hope you enjoy!

--x--

_Chapter four - in which much fussing ensues._

Toothless lay curled around the pile of furs, his tail lying aside so that the warmth of the fire could directly reach the little form beneath the bundle. With the exception of the the popping of embers and the tinkering of metal, the room was hung with silence.

Gobber had been working on the new prosthetic for almost seven hours now, collectively. It wasn't as fancy or as specialized as the last one, but what choice did they have? Hiccup needed one, and his old one was lost - to, presumably, the ocean. Stoic's son would make a newer, better version eventually anyway.

He lifted his tired eyes toward the pile of furs. The heap looked warm, and soft, and camoflauged among the dark brown coats, a mop of auburn hair lay near-motionless. He could see the very top of Hiccup's forehead before the rest of the boy vanished beneath the blankets, sleeping through - and off, hopefully - a fever.

Toothless had smashed his way out of the forest the night prior, roaring in some sort of agony; emotionally or physically, they couldn't tell. Gobber wasn't a good judge of dragon's to begin with. With him, Toothless was carrying Hiccup awkwardly, the limp young Viking shivering horribly and completely unresponsive. The memory forced Gobber's eyes back to his work, as means of distraction. He had never liked seeing the lad get hurt.

It was evening already. He could imagine people down at the docks, hauling in the catch for the day while the nightly patrol boats loaded themselves up: dragons or not, no Viking felt safe after the sun went down. He thought of his forge, of the tools he had left, and the promise the twins had made to him that they would take care of it.

_They've probably burnt the place down,_ he thought, a small smile on his face. The twins were just as clumsy in the midst of a fight as Hiccup was on a good day.

To his left, he could hear a rumbling murmur. Lifting his eyes upward from where he was forcing a short metal pole into a joint, he watched as the Night Fury lifted its tired head and leaned over the furs, nudging Hiccup's form gently. The boy showed no signs of acknowledgement, and the dragon sighed.

"I know how ya' feel," Gobber sighed, smiling despite himself at the look on the Night Fury's face. Despondent, Toothless dropped his head back down and closed his eyes.

The fire stirred suddenly, as the air in the room shifted with the opening of the door. It was a cold night, despite it being the middle of summer. In the doorway, backdropped by the fading light, Stoic stood solemnly for a moment before stepping into the room.

"Anything?" Gobber asked, minding the volume of his voice. Stoic closed the door quietly and turned, his face sunken with fatigue and disappointment.

"Nothing."

They shared a silence as the Viking Chief sat down on a bench beside Hiccup, only sparing Toothless a small nod. Reaching downward, he carefully pulled some of the blankets and furs off of his son's sleeping form, settling them back down on his shoulder.

"His cast dried a little bit ago," Gobber offered, peering at his old friend as the man sat there, stiff and silent, watching his son sleep. He was answered with further silence before Stoic drew in a great chestful of air. Releasing it slowly, he pushed the bench back and instead sat down on the floor, to be closer to the smallest Viking in the room.

"Who could do this to him? All recent events aside, he's still so... weak. Who is so shameful?"

With nothing reasonable to respond with, Gobber sat in silence and continued to tinker with the leg.

"Even when he was younger, the other children wouldn't go so far. They knew _better_. They're-... _We're_ Vikings. We have more honor than that."

"... You're saying you don't think it was one of us?"

Silence again, cold and thick and churning. Stoic's large hand made a short journey over Hiccup's hair, smoothing it despite its insistence of be messy.

"... No. How could it not be?" he said finally, in such a hushed tone that Gobber shuddered. "No one else is here. And these..."

He pushed the blankets and furs down a bit farther, revealing Hiccup's shirtless torso. The hideous black-and-blue welts that had formed around his chest and along his back looked back at them as they both fell still at the sight.

"These aren't from a dragon."

--x--

Snotlout's handywork had followed Hiccup through his state of unconsciousness, meeting up with him once his mind began to stir again. The ache was there as he pulled his brain from the murk of fever-induced sleep, a distant stiffness making it hard for him to move at first. With as much effort as he could muster, his eyelids separated to reveal more darkness.

Somewhere in front of him, a dying fire crackled. He was buried beneath something, wrapped in a warmth he hadn't expected to find himself in. He could feel, all around him, a familiar vibrating rumble before something black moved into his line of sight. He peeked cautiously out from the blankets he was cocooned in, slowly recognizing the orbs of pale green.

His mouth parted, hardly more than a centimeter, but no sound came out. Trying again in vain, he gave up and allowed himself to smile instead. Toothless warbled a sort of purr and ducked his head down, nudging his nose against Hiccup's forehead.

"Now, now, leave him alone, beast," came a deep, warm voice from somewhere outside of the warmth. Hiccup's eyes fell closed, but the weak smile remained.

"Dad," he exhaled, with a bit of effort. The man crossed over to him and knelt carefully, minding the bruises as he helped him sit up. Annoyed that the large Viking had gotten in his way, Toothless stood and walked quickly around them before lying back down on Hiccup's other side.

"Careful, son, careful." Hiccup winced, leaning heavily against his father to cope with the pain. Stoic sighed and held an arm around him reassuringly.

"So-...rry," came the faint response, sounding more like two breaths then coherent words. Stoic's frown deepened, his thick eyebrows knitting together across his forehead.

"It's alright, son, don't speak if you can't." The words directly contradicted the demand for answers that pounded in his brain. He wanted to know what had happened, and only Hiccup could tell him.

Stubbornly, the scrawny teen shook his head and pushed off of his father, tilting a bit before steadying himself. His chest ached in harmony with his back and head, but it was all numb compared his arm.

"It wasn't Toothless," he exhaled, addressing some distant fear that perhaps his father would blame the Night Fury for his condition. Stoic had developed the habit of blaming Toothless for every little thing, desperate to get the dragon out of his house. None of it worked, obviously, but at the sound of his son's weak words, the man blinked.

"I know," he replied, leaning down a bit awkwardly, "but can you tell me... who?"

_Who_. He hoped to Thor it was a _what_, but deep in his mind he knew otherwise.

Hiccup tilted his head back, trying to look up at his father, but the shift of weight sent him falling backwards toward the blankets. His father sighed and caught him, rolling his eyes despite the situation at hand. Even half conscious, Hiccup was Hiccup.

The boy looked at him for only a moment longer before dropping his eyes and shaking his head.

"Hiccup, tell me," the man pushed, trying a more sensitive tone. It came out feeling awkward and mismatched, like a helmet with the horns of two different animals.

"It..."

Stoic leaned forward encouragingly, causing his son to shrink down into his shoulders. Toothless nudged him from behind, drawing their attention to him. The Night Fury returned the looks with narrowed eyes, and grunted twice. _If you don't, I will_.

Though Stoic couldn't interpret Toothless's implication, Hiccup got the gist of it, and sighed.

"It was Snotlout."

--x--

_Shit_! That little- He just-... Bu-

__Snotlout dropped down from where he had been watching through the window, his feet hitting earth with a gentle thump. Though initially worried that the Night Fury would hear him, he didn't care anymore. The thing was too distracted with Hiccup anyway.

But, to be on the safe side, perhaps it was a good idea to leave. Snotlout pushed off of the wall and began to run toward the forest two houses down, darting out of sight as quickly as he could.

He was going to _kill_ Hiccup. He was going to finish what he had started and leave him to die, and then that would settle that, and everything would return to normal. He could blame it on that god damned Night Fury and be fine with it. He could live without that annoying little imp, without his tripping and his excuses and his smiling and his eyes.

Snotlout fell to a pause several yards past the tree line, looking back through the branches at the village he was leaving behind. Since the evening prior, he had kept trying to rid himself of the thought that had crept into the outskirts of his mind when he was attacking the smaller Viking. Fragile? _Beautiful_? These were words he was surprised he _knew_ as a Viking, let alone words he would use to describe that little _runt_.

He started moving again.

Once he had thought it, he couldn't simply cast it aside. Now the thought was growing in his mind, developing into more accurate words, more clever descriptions of Hiccup. Things he didn't want to think, or know, or _feel_, for fuck's sake he didn't want to feel any of this! Maybe it was all envy? Maybe he was just thinking these things because he was truly jealous of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the third?

He wanted to believe it. On any other subject, he would have accepted it as fact immediately and moved on. Vikings didn't _think_ after all. That was for wimps like Hiccup. But this time, it didn't sit right. He told himself that it was the truth again and again, but it simply wasn't. Hiccup wasn't an object of envy, he was...

An object of lust?

Snotlout nearly tripped as the words appeared in his head, clear out of the fog of confusion that had been buzzing around all day. No. No. _Hell_ no. No way, in the name of any God he could think of, did he like Hiccup. No way did he find him cute, no way did he like his eyes, no way did he want to push him down and hold him against his chest like some sort of limp rag doll. No way did he think of Hiccup like any of that.

... But then, why did those things even come to mind? If he didn't feel that way, then why would he ever think those things?

He ran faster, focusing on the beat of his legs. He had to get out of there before they sent out a search party, and his Nightmare was waiting impatiently for him back in the clearing where he had attacked Hiccup. Head swirling, he burst out of the trees after long minutes of sprinting, and stumbled into the opening beside the sea. The sun had set by now, leaving only the moonlight to cast itself down onto the waves below. The Nightmare stirred, growling at his tardiness, but it had grown more and more loyal as of late, and so stopped at the snarl.

Snotlout was stalking toward it with every intention of leaving promptly when the toe of his shoe caught something. Dropping his gaze, his eyes fell upon a crumbled thing of fur on the ground. He stooped and picked it up cautiously, feeling the bearskin in his work-hardened hands.

It was Hiccup's vest. A long stretch of silence filled the air around him, where he stood listening to the roar of the ocean and the heavy breathing of his Nightmare. Then, after a long pause, he lifted the vest to his face and inhaled deeply.

It smelled like him. Like iron, and fish, and that damn Night Fury. But mostly it had the unique scent that was Hiccup, not nearly as nasty a smell as the other Vikings. Not sweaty, not musky, not even the faintest hint of blood. Just Hiccup.

Snotlout lowered the article of clothing and looked at it for a long time before he heard the distant, oh-so-faint sound of men shouting: they had started the search. Quickly darting forward, he mounted the Nightmare and the beast lifted off, up into the sky, into the blackness above, and out of sight.

All the while, he clutched the vest like a life-line.

--x--

Oh-kay. Boring chapter is boring. Sorry about that. But I'm a _big_ fan of plot development, if you can't tell, so this had to happen. I really wanted to emphasize the mental struggle Snotlout is going through in order to come to terms with his new realization. And with that all sorted out, I'll leave you guys to guess what's going to happen next... Which will be action, hopefully. You all seem to enjoy that. xD

Please review!


	5. Snotlout Obsesses

I got the soundtraaack. I love filmscore, and this music makes it so much easier to write.

Fair warning: I'm bad at dialog. Or at least terribly out of practice. So I'm sorry if it's hard to tell who's speaking, I tried. If there's any confusion, it's all my bad... (Obviously.)

Also, I'm really sorry about the last chapter; the way the dividers were set (--x--) didn't get recognized by the site, so there was no separation to the different scenes. I'm really sorry if that threw anyone off!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed, here's another chapter for you. Enjoy!

--x--

Astrid puffed her bangs from her face in a fit of aggravation. "That's not what I'm talking about, Hiccup, and you know it."

Pained emerald eyes looked back at her, regarding her mood cautiously. After a moment of blank thought, Hiccup dropped his gaze and leaned back into the pillow behind him. It belonged to his father, and like anything Stoic owned, it was about five times the size of what it should have been. Hiccup looked even smaller leaning up against the huge thing, his back sinking into it numbly. Bedridden until the village medic could see to him, he had nothing to do but listen to Astrid carry on.

"And you're not even taking it seriously!" she continued, tossing her arms up, "You're the victim here, why can't you act like it?"

"Because I've been acting like a victim my entire life. I figured it would just carry over into now."

The comment, as lighthearted as it was intended to be, fell on deaf ears. Astrid would hear none of it, fuming and pacing around to cope with the anger.

"He _pummeled_ you! For no reason! And then he threw you into the freaking _ocean_, Hiccup, the ocean! You can hardly walk straight, let alone swim!"

Though over the years he had built up a thick shell of protection from such petty insults, Hiccup's eyes narrowed a bit at the comment. Vikings in general were terrible swimmers, only knowing the basics of treading because Berk was surrounded by sea. It shouldn't have bugged him, but she just kept _going_. And so it did.

"I mean, yeah, he's Snotlout. It's not like he's the nicest guy in the world, but you can't even _walk_ for long periods of time without your leg hurting, why would he- he just-... He... The ocean!"

Finally too fed up to speak properly, Astrid dropped herself onto the bed beside Hiccup. She stared bitterly at the ceiling, contemplating the pros and cons of organized homicide, while Hiccup twiddled with the thick bandages around his two broken fingers.

"Thanks for pointing that all out for me," he muttered, looking toward the door. Toothless's tail flicked passed the window before vanishing from sight again, just as quickly. He had been smelling around that particular area all morning, for what Hiccup had no idea. Maybe he smelled fish.

"I just don't like seeing you get hurt, okay?" Astrid said, suddenly. Her voice was so hushed that it startled her friend, who looked back around to her with elevated eyebrows.

"I know," he replied honestly. She had made that quite apparent after he had lost his leg. "But it's too late to change that. So don't keep worrying about it."

A fist caught his shoulder, in a weakened manner that made him flinch in surprise rather than pain. Astrid pushed herself into a sitting position beside him and fell back against the pillow, her head falling beside his delicately. She stopped it just in time before she applied too much weight to his shoulder, cautious of his sore muscles.

"How's your fever?" She asked, fighting the urge to check for herself.

"Going down, a bit," came the reply. Hiccup sniffled without thinking and looked back toward the window. He could see the black of Toothless's back, moving slowly in the pale light of the cloudy day. He was digging at something, maybe.

"Then keep sleeping. You can't get sick this close to the winter season."

A sigh. "It won't be another five weeks before it starts to snow, Astrid. I'll be fine."

The blond moved to say something but was stopped by some nagging voice in the back of his mind. She relaxed a bit then, and joined Hiccup in watching the window.

Suddenly, Toothless's lithe body forced open the door. The Night Fury padded in proudly, his tail swishing behind him and closing the door. The two teens watched as he came up along the bed, leaned in, and dropped something into Hiccup's blanket-covered lap. Satisfied that he had completed the task, Toothless gave his human a loving nudge and sat down with a heavy thump_._

Astrid plucked the thing up before Hiccup could even get a good look at it. She turned it over in her hand silently before narrowing her eyes.

"This... is part of your leg."

Hiccup turned his attention away from Toothless then. His good hand reached out and snagged the bit of metal, turning it over before his green eyes widened.

"It's the shock absorber."

Astrid's eyes narrowed, shifting from Toothless to Hiccup to the object. "Was... was it outside the window?"

"Must have been," Hiccup replied hollowly. His eyes lifted up to the Night Fury who looked back blankly. "But I thought they didn't find the leg...?"

Astrid shook her head. "No... It was gone. Did you say it was stuck in some roots?"

"Or something, yeah..."

"So..."

They lifted their eyes up to Toothless simultaneously, regarding the Night Fury with nothing short of bewildered suspicion.

"How did _you_ get it?"

--x--

Snotlout poked at the embers of the dying fire, watching as the small lumps glowed hotter for a moment before fading again. A chill had set in with the setting of the sun, and with the huge rock face behind him, he was beginning to feel the cold creep toward him. To his left, curled in on itself for warmth, his Monstrous Nightmare slept lightly. He envied him, and his ability to sleep at a time like this. After a _discovery_ like this. How could anything drift out of consciousness when so much information was flying around?

"You stupid thing," he muttered, using his poking stick to fling a coal at it. It connected with a wall of scales, making nothing more than a small _thwack_; the Nightmare didn't even register it. Sighing, the human dropped his eyes back to the fire.

There had been times in his life when he had claimed that he couldn't stop thinking about something. Working out, killing dragons, being the self-proclaimed 'Best Viking in the World'. But he had always been able to move on to other subjects. Despite his claims, he was never actually _unable_ to move on.

Not this time. His mind was completely consumed with thoughts of only one central thing: Hiccup. He thought about when he was younger, or when he was learning to ride his Nightmare, or when he had decided to pursue Astrid so faithfully, but every memory had to do with Hiccup. It had to do with his eyes, and his voice, and the comments he made - comments Snotlout didn't know he remembered until now.

A scowl began to form on his face. Hiccup had taken over as Mr Popularity, he had taken over as Mr Viking-of-the-year, he had taken over as Astrid's god-damned _love interest._ What gave him the right to go the extra mile and take over Snotlout's thinking process? Try as he may, he couldn't get that little runt out of his mind. _Think about girls,_Snotlout had tried, but he could only see Hiccup in his mind's eye. _Think about dragon stats,_ he persisted, but he could only think about Hiccup's dragon advice. _Think about killing stuff_, but he would end up thinking about how it felt when he was pounding his fists into Hiccup's upper back.

His father had told him once, before Hiccup _ruined everything_, about why Vikings never tired of hunting dragons. He said they were obsessed. What was 'obsessed', Snotlout had asked. His mother had turned around then, and in a joking manner, replied "An unwanted urge."

But she was right. He was devolving into a state of sheer obsession, to the point where he couldn't tell if he wanted to hurt Hiccup because he was _Hiccup_, or because Snotlout just plain wanted to.

As the night wore on, he began to entertain himself with thoughts of harming the younger Viking. His eyes closed at some point, and a smile had crept it's way onto his face as he thought. It was exhilarating, he found, to picture Hiccup looking up at him like he had: terrified, in pain, struggling. But at the same time, there was something ultimately beautiful about it. Something that no girl had ever shown, no kill had ever delivered, no award had ever brought. There was something uniquely... _erotic_ about Hiccup Haddock the third.

His eyes opened. The images fell away, and the emotions died down. The fire was almost out, and the Nightmare was fast asleep now. Lifting his eyes upward, Snotlout followed a shooting star before it too vanished, leaving him alone.

He wanted Hiccup. He wanted to control him, it seemed, to completely dominate the crippled runt. And he couldn't have that without Hiccup, now could he?

His chest puffed out in tune with his sinking eyebrows. He was a _Viking_. He was the _best damn Viking_ on the Island of Berk, no matter what anyone else said. And as the best, he would get whatever he wanted; no matter what that meant.

--x--

Snotlout is insane. How interesting. I can't imagine this turning out well for Hiccup.


	6. Toothless Struggles

Yessss I found time to write. So you guys get an update! Win/win? I think so.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I read back through the old chapters and found that they _all_ had divider problems, (--x-- wasn't showing up,) so I fixed them all. I'm really sorry if it's been confusing for anyone. If the story seems at all hazy, you can read back now and maybe it'll help make things clearer. I tend to scene-change by jumping from one narrative to the next, so I'm worried that it threw people off.

Anyway. Enjoy!

--x--

His plan was simple enough: get in, get Hiccup, get out. Never one to plan that far into the future, Snotlout had been ready to go by morning when it struck him that he wasn't just dealing with Hiccup and a few other Vikings; he was dealing with an entire village. A village, and dragons. If he wanted to get his hands on his goal, he would have to actually think about what he was going to set out to do.

And for three hours, it consumed him. Three hours, every minute passing like its own century. Three hours of strategics. He could see, finally, why his father had stressed the importance of planning ahead.

It was near noon by the time he had figured it out to a satisfying degree. Proud of himself, he stood up from his sitting position and studied the plan he had drawn out in the dirt. There was a long pause before he glanced toward the Nightmare, watching over his shoulder.

"You ready? We have some stuff to take care of first."

--x--

Stoic had gone from the house an hour prior to see that a more organized search party was prepared. Under the pressure of Snotlout's parents, the village elder, and of course, Stoic, the entire community of Berk seemed to be up in arms over the issue of finding the offending teenager.

Regardless of their eagerness to help, it left Hiccup alone with Toothless. And how could Stoic worry? The Night Fury was possibly more protective of his son then he was, though he would never think to admit it. Where he would let Hiccup go exploring on his own, hoping he would 'man up', Toothless had all but stricken Hiccup's alone time down to a few precious hours a day.

This wasn't one of those hours. Toothless lay curled in an almost-complete circle around where his charge was sleeping, once more on the pile of furs and blankets beside the fire. Under the advisory of the village healer, it was best to keep him close to the heat at all times. He was, after all, burning with light fever. Fight fire with fire, the healer had said. It worked so well when you saved the village, didn't it?

It was very quiet. Toothless had drowned out the noises from the village's evening life with a constant sort of purr, the drone lulling Hiccup back to sleep whenever an ache or pain woke him. As his human curled beneath the furs and blankets, Toothless would stare at the fire, unblinking, his mind consumed with thoughts of only that; fire. He didn't get to enjoy in the way he used to.

His ear twitched. Then twitched again, and the lullaby echoing from his chest stopped. Lifting his head, Toothless turned his gaze toward the window. It was completely dark outside now, and to his surprise the village had all but turned in. So what was that growling sound?

It was faint, obstructed by trees and branches. The savage rumble drew Toothless's ears straight up now, as he recognized the pitch and sway of the sound. It was another dragon, one he had met the day Hiccup had tried to prove to his village that dragon's weren't monsters. It was one he had battled the Green Death with, and one who had recently attacked him in the woods.

It was Snotlout's Monstrous Nightmare.

A soft growl began to resonate from somewhere deep inside the Night Fury. Silently, he rose to a crouch, sweeping himself out of the circle he had curled in. Moving like liquid, he lifted himself up onto one of the ceiling beams, and then higher out of the sky-light gap between the two sections of roof. Stopping on the thatching, Toothless lifted his ears and fell very still. The growl had faded for the time being, but the Night Fury didn't move. Five minutes turned to ten before it started back up, this time sounding more aggravated. Toothless tilted his head gently in the cold breeze, catching sound of exactly what direction the Nightmare was in.

He wasted no time in sliding from the roof and stalking toward the source of the growl. The village gave way quickly to the forest, shadowing the black creature further. Moving with a silence only granted to Night Furies, he ducked through the undergrowth and stepped over fallen branches and sticks thoughtlessly.

He came upon a clearing only two minutes into his journey. At its center perched the Nightmare, looking around blindly in the night. How odd that it hadn't set itself on fire; as a rule, Nightmares used the light of their own combustion to see in a situation like this. Toothless paused at the edge of the clearing before stepping into the moonlight, immediately drawing the Nightmare's attention.

They held eye contact as Toothless stalked forward, a growl pulling back his lips to reveal his ivory teeth. The Nightmare stood there watching, uncharacteristically calm.

Toothless was two yards from the Nightmare when he heard it; the _thwckchkchk_ of something being shot from a long range canon. The last time he had heard such a bizarre sound, Hiccup had shot him from the sky.

He had no time to react. The mess of rope and weights caught him along his side head-on, sending the Night Fury lurching to his left. Letting out a shrill roar, the dragon immediately began to writhe in the bindings, kicking and flailing to escape. On instinct, his mouth opened wide and a hot gas formed in the back of his throat, prepare to blast his way out of the trap. As he was angling himself, tail and wings still thrashing, the Nightmare pounced, planting its talons squarely on Toothless head and snapping his mouth shut.

The two dragons fell into an impressive struggle. Though he had bested the Nightmare once before, the weight of the stones and iron balls along with the constriction of the ropes limited him enough to prove him useless in fighting back. The Nightmare held him down squarely, no biting, no clawing. It just kept him from releasing fire or breaking free from the ropes.

In the corner of his eye, Toothless watched in a haze of rage and panic as a small, human figure darted passed in the direction of the village.

--x--

Hiccup stirred as a wave of pain echoed through his arm. Blinking his eyes open carefully, he allowed enough time to pass for his vision to clear before he groaned and looked down at the bound limb. How unfair was it that his arm should snap? Certainly he could have gotten off with just a sprain?

His attention shifted at the realization that Toothless's warm, solid form was not around him. Awkwardly, and with great care, Hiccup pushed himself up into a sitting position and found some stability in a slumped position. His eyes began to scan the main room around him, passing over the fire and looking at the darkened figures on the wall. His father must have still been at that meeting. A shiver fell over him, but he ignored it. It was the first time he had pulled himself out of a lying position, and he wanted to at least enjoy it for a minute longer.

He was shivering, visibly. Lifting up his good arm, Hiccup rubbed his eyes one at a time and tried a yawn, satisfied with how it came out.

"Toothless?" he muttered softly, more to himself than the dragon. After all, the Night Fury would respond to his sitting up any minute now, so it was a waste of breath.

Something moved, in the far side of the room. _He must have been chasing shadows again_, Hiccup sighed, not bothering to turn to look. His hands fell into his lap as he sat there, slumped, looking at the fire.

A few heavy footfalls. The sound added to Hiccup's sore head, and the human sighed.

"Would you cut that out, you big reptile?" he sighed, unable to hide the humor in his voice despite how sincere he was being.

"Wrong. Try again."

Hiccup's eyes snapped open, his body whipping around as fast as it could. The strange voice had startled him to the core and back, but as his eyes met up with the figure immediately behind him, a new fear began to fight its way out of its hiding place.

"Snotlout," Hiccup exhaled, so shocked to see the bigger male that it was all he could do. The elder smiled some sort of crooked, crazed smile and dropped his hand onto Hiccup's shoulder, grasping it like a brace.

"Where were we?"

The fist flashed in the dim light, connected hard with the side of Hiccup's head. The small Viking's body jerked to the side, and a very small cry escaped his mouth before Hiccup slumped down to the bedding beside him, completely unconscious.

Snotlout's heart pounded faster - something he thought impossible after the way it was racing when he had watched Hiccup wake up. For a moment, he watched the much smaller boy as he laid there. He watched the bruise form on his temple, and his chest fall back into a normal breathing pattern. It was as if he was in sleep, (however close he was to it,) and it stirred something deep in Snotlout's gut.

The sound of someone laughing, outside of the house and down aways, brought him back to reality. He stood, stiffly, and snagged up the large fur Hiccup was lying on, drawing four points into a bundle and lifting the younger teen off the ground. Hiccup hung limp in the makeshift sack, completely hidden away from sight. Snotlout flung it over his shoulder and ducked across the room and out the back door, feeling like a looter who had just scored the best haul the world had to offer.

He got him! The little runt was _right over his shoulder_, his for the taking! The excitement nearly blinded him as he ran, focusing on the way it felt to have Hiccup's body bump against his each time he lunged forward. By some miracle, he kept his footing, and soon found himself racing into the clearing that he had trapped the Night Fury in.

To his great disappointed, the Night Fury was still struggling against the Nightmare, who by then had grown too aggravated to notice Snotlout's arrival.

"Get off of it, let's go!" Snotlout demanded, clambering up onto the Nightmare's back. He pulled Hiccup around before him, the fur-bundle falling open. Hiccup remained limp and unresponsive even as Snotlout wrapped his thick arms around him, holding him so tight that Hiccup's face flinched in some sort of pain.

Toothless's eyes turned skyward in that moment, immediately picking Hiccup out from between Snotlout and the Nightmare. Pale green eyes widened terribly then, pupils shrinking into slits no bigger than thumbnails. With a newfound energy, the Night Fury contorted and pull its head free from beneath the Nightmare's heavy from limbs.

The roar was deafening. Never had Snotlout seen a dragon so enraged, even with a lifetime of watching the adults fight them. Even when _he_fought them. The Night Fury lunged for him, mouth wide open with every intention of sinking his fangs into the large human youth, but was stopped short when the ropes of his binding snagged on a thick fallen log. He roared again, using all he could to break free, but his wings and two legs were bound up completely, and his tail couldn't reach. The Nightmare lifted off, with the speed of the gods in its wings. Toothless mouth opened to charge a blast. He _couldn't_ let them get away, they had Hiccup!

They had Hiccup. In the moonlight, Toothless could make out Hiccup's casted arm, hanging limp from Snotlout's hold on the younger boy. If Toothless fired at them, he would hit Hiccup, and he wouldn't be able to catch him.

The gas buildup in the back of his throat subsided. As the Nightmare vanished from sight, Toothless released another roar, so loud that every living thing on the island woke with a terrible start.

They had Hiccup.

--x--

And I have to go on a road trip now. :/ Oh well. At least Snotlout isn't crazy obsessed with me.

Please review!


	7. Toothless Rages

Not much for talking right now.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Enjoy.

--x--

Astrid lurched up in bed, her hair falling around her face in a mess of wispy blond.

"Toothless?" She asked no one, registering the sounds of roaring that had woke her. They were distant, and angry, and more pained then she had ever heard them: but they were definitely from a Night Fury.

Her feet were on the floor before she knew what she was doing. Tugging her shoes on, she raced out of her room and down the stairs, pausing only to grab an ax from beside the front door of her home before bursting into the night.

She had always been a powerful runner, with the unique ability to leap clear over anything in her path without losing speed. Tonight was no exception as she pushed her legs in the direction of the cries, her eyes wide with panic. Toothless was supposed to be watching Hiccup. If Toothless was in the woods, roaring like _that_, something was very wrong.

A tree branch snapped across her cheek, scratching at her skin and leaving a raw red mark. She stumbled momentarily, shocked that she had made it into the woods so fast, but at the sound of another cry, she forced herself back into running. She could see, in the moonlight, a clearing ahead. Between the tree branches, something black was thrashing desperately in one place.

"Toothless!" She cried, bursting into the open area before slowing down just out of his reach. The dragon was tangled up in ropes, making it worse by the minute with all his thrashing. Astrid's eyebrows pulled together in a look of confused panic as she moved forward, wary of the tail flopping about.

"Toothless, calm down, it's me!" She tried, in a much calmer voice this time. The Night Fury looked toward her suddenly, as if he had just realized that she was there. For a moment he was stilled, eyes watching her carefully, before a heavy burst of air shot out of his nostrils and his eyes narrowed again.

"What happened?" she asked stupidly, stepping forward to try and help untangle him. At her approach, Toothless pushed his tail into her, sweeping her aside easily. The blond fell back onto the ground with a startled _umph,_pausing a moment to recalibrate herself.

"Toothless, calm down! Please, I'm trying to help you!"

The Night Fury huffed and shook his head violently before catching her eyes again. Two more heaving breaths, and he collapsed into a sitting position, sweeping his tail to his other side to show that he wouldn't hit her with it again. Cautiously this time, Astrid pushed herself up and slid forward, examining the ropes.

Footsteps raced through the forest from the direction of the village, falling in tune with shouts of "what's going on?" and "what's all that damn noise?" Astrid turned to greet them only for a moment before withdrawing a small dagger and bringing it to the ropes. Nervous that the other Vikings had arrived, Toothless grew tense and turned his attention back to the sky as means of distraction.

"What the Gods is this thing?" someone called from out of the clearing. Astrid continued to free Toothless, cutting through rope after rope with great impatience. A figure came out of the woods, tugging a sort of canon after him; it looked a lot like the canon Hiccup had created all those months ago, for lack of being able to throw a simple weapon.

"It must have shot the dragon down," someone offered.

"But the Night Fury can't fly without Hiccup," another challenged.

"Then where's the boy?"

The question started an outright panic. It started slow, with another person repeating the question, and evolved into cries for a manhunt when it was discovered that Hiccup wasn't at his home. Through the madness, Astrid hung close to Toothless. The Night Fury was breathing heavily, in a seething manner that revealed how upset he was. He growled at any strange Viking who came close, and each time Hiccup's name was mentioned, the dragon would shake his head roughly and claw at the ground. Even as the vast majority of the people had cleared out, back to the village to plan, Toothless remained.

After a time, with only three other Vikings still in the clearing, Toothless fell forward onto all four legs and moved silently across the clearing. Astrid, who had been sitting beside him, lost in thought and staring at the ground, jerked her head up in a haze of panic before blindly stumbling to her feet after him.

"Toothless, wait! You can't go out to find him yet, everyone is plan-"

She stopped, suddenly, when Toothless stopped. He was smelling the ground impatiently, watching where he placed each foot. With piqued interest, Astrid dropped her eyes to the ground to examine for herself.

Claw marks and footprints. Dragon footprints, specifically. She squatted, reaching out a hand to run a few fingers over one of the markings. They were similar to the footprints and claw marks all over the walls and floor of the training ring.

"A Nightmare?" she muttered, her voice hardly audible over the rustle of the leaves in the tree. Through the moonlight, she lifted her gaze and studied the ground around her, coming across claws, paws, paws, and suddenly, something completely different. Something about the size of Tuffnut's feet, only wider. Human shaped.

Monstrous Nightmare. Human footprints. Missing Hiccup.

Astrid lifted her eyes to Toothless. Her pale blue eyes were hollow, completely devoid of any distinguishable emotion as she came to a terrifying realization.

"Snotlout."

--x--

He could hear the ocean. It was distant, and muffled by something, but he could hear it. It was the only sound around him, from his spot at the bottom of a shallow pit. It was three feet too tall for him to climb out, and with his arm the way it was, and the splitting headache he had, he hadn't bothered. He chose the safer, less painful option of curling in ball and leaning against the flattest rock face, cradled beside a large rock to keep his balance.

Hiccup rested his sore chin on the kneecap of his right leg. As far as his left leg was concerned, he had given up trying to find a comfortable position for it. The aging wound just beneath his knee ached distantly, as it would do from time to time. But why now? Why at the bottom of this hole, in wherever-the-hell he was?

The ocean again. His mind, frail from one too many knocks to the head, had been swaying between the sound of the ocean and the problem of his leg for the past hour. He couldn't decide which one he should focus on: one offered escape, while the other gave him something to do. Or at _least_ something to think about.

And he had always been a fan of busywork.

A new sound appeared, suddenly. It was muffled, like the ocean, but closer. Lifting his eyes, Hiccup peered through his bangs, up at the cave ceiling above him. Caves, rocks, slate gray, black. He was sick of it. But the noise persisted, and so he squinted into the relative darkness above his head.

He hadn't seen anyone or anything since he had woken up. After about twenty minutes, his mind had recalibrated itself once more, and he could remember the terror he had felt when he turned to find not Toothless, but Snotlout. It was the last clear image his memory had to offer.

A sudden emotional ache ran through him. Toothless, where was he? Why hadn't he protected him, the one time he really _needed_ it? What had happened to the Night Fury that prevented him from keeping Snotlout from abducting him?

The sound came again, much cleared this time. As the echo died away, footsteps replaced it. They grew louder quickly before a shadow - imagine that, in a cave, a shadow - fell over him small, huddled form. The figure at the top of the pit looked down at him for a long silent moment, in which Hiccup felt a harsh chill race down his spine.

"Snotlout?" he asked, his voice thin as parchment. The figure shifted a bit at the name, it's shoulders lifting tensly.

"Comfortable enough down there, runt?"

Hiccup dropped his eyes. He had really been hoping it was anyone but Snotlout. Taking a fragile breath, he closed his eyes a minute to drum up more courage to speak.

"Why did you bring me here, 'Lout?" he asked. Some voice deep inside of him hoped that calling him by the friendly nickname would instill some sort of guilt in the older boy. Snotlout, however, was unaffected.

Something hit the ground in front of Hiccup with a loud_ thmp_. The small Viking's eyes popped open in surprise to find a fish, fully cooked, staring back at him.

"Eat it. If anything's going to kill you, it'll be me. _Not_ starvation."

Hiccup looked at the thing a moment longer before lifting his eyes again. He could see, just barely, a strange look fall over Snotlout's face when they made eye contact.

Hiccup was, in truth, surprised that Snotlout had even thought to feed him. The brute wasn't that intelligent, after all. But he _was_ hungry, and it was better than being pulled out of the hole for Thor knows what. Given the choice between the hole or a pain-riddled chance at escape, Hiccup would opt for the hole.

Snotlout watched him a minute longer before turning to leave, prompting the younger boy to jerk upright a bit.

"Wait! You didn't answer my question!" Hiccup had never been one to push for conversation with people, especially when it was obvious they didn't want to talk, but today could be the rare exception. The older Viking stopped, his back facing the hole, and slowly turned again. When his face shifted into a collum of light that fell down from some unseen opening in the cave, he was smiling. Not a normal smile, nor a healthy one. This look was perverted with something Hiccup couldn't identify. It was almost a sneer.

"You're here to learn your fucking place, _Hiccup_."

And he was gone. Hiccup stared after him, wide-eyed and more confused than before. Slowly, his eyes fell to the fish before him. After a long pause, he sighed and reached for the thing stiffly, wincing as he did so.

--x--

Why do I keep pushing off the violence? I'm not even trying. D:

Please Review!


	8. Hiccup Swings

Fatigue is not my friend. ; 3;

--x--

_Chapter eight - in which Hiccup fights back._

The cold had filled every crevasse of the cave when the sun set, leaving Hiccup to struggle for warmth. Snotlout had not returned after the last encounter, and as minutes turned to hours, Hiccup began to lose his sense of rationality. He was freezing, he was hurt, he was terrified, and he was slowly beginning to slip into temporary insanity.

"Snotlout, please! I c-c-can't- You can't l-leave me down here!" he called once more, pleading with the nothingness above to reveal Snotlout to him. He didn't care if he was begging. He didn't care if he was sacrificing his pride. He only cared about not freezing to death in a hole in a cave in wherever-he-was.

"Please! I-I... I'm so cold!"

He had stopped crying when the wetness of his tears began to add to his chill. Rocking back and forth with his arms hugging his one whole leg to his chest, Hiccup pushed his forehead to his knee and gave a dry sob.

He had been cold before. Freezing, almost. One winter he had been caught in a snow storm, and it took his father's insistence to find him and bring him home again safely. But his father wasn't going to stumble out of a blizzard this time; Hiccup was alone.

The rock around him had given away it's heat hours ago. Hiccup began to devolve into a haze of panic when his calls continued to go unanswered, and on into the night he shook like a leaf in the wind.

He was sick when he got here. He was going to get so terribly ill that... Hiccup opened his eyes and lifted them back to the opening. He _couldn't_ die here. What about Astrid? His father? Gobber and the twins and Fishlegs and all he had earned for himself through non-violence?

What aboutToothless?

The thought brought Hiccup back to reality. The numbness of his brain cracked and fell away, forcing Hiccup onto his good foot.

Toothless had saved him from being an outcast. He had saved him and his entire village from inhalation. He had saved him from dying in fire, and dying in the ocean. He had saved Hiccup from himself.

So Hiccup_ couldn't_ die. He couldn't lose himself to the cold or a fever or _Snotlout_.

Without him knowing it, he was forcing his way up the jagged rock face of the hole around him. He slipped, again and again, struggling to hold himself up with his one good arm, and his one good leg. But try after try inevitably brought him foothold after foothold, and to his distant amazement, his hands found the top of the hole.

Elbows up, chest over it, knee up, hoist, pull, there! At the top, out of the hole! Hiccup lay there a minute, panting and stunned at what he had accomplished. Taking a minute to look back into the darkness he had pulled himself out of, he thoughtlessly wiped his forehead and tried in vain to see around him. To his right, a gradient of light led around a corner to, presumably, the entrance of the cave. He got to his one foot hastily and stumbled, hitting the wall with a small gasp.

Hopping hadn't been dignifying before now. Hopping reminded him and everyone around him that he was infirmed and helpless. But alone in a cave, held prisoner by someone who was slowly becoming psychotic? Hopping made him feel hopeful; he _wasn't_ just a crippled thing to be tossed wherever Snotlout wanted him to go. He could take care of himself.

The cave mouth gradually appeared around the corner. Hiccup fell still then, his breath hitching at the sight of a small fire a yard from the opening.

Snotlout was sitting there, poking it with a stick. He was completely lost in thought, it appeared, a dumb smile on his face and - to Hiccup's horrified disgust - a bulge in his pants.

The small Viking sunk into the shadows up against the wall. He couldn't get out that way, for sure. The ocean that had back-dropped the scene was glittering in naked moonlight, presumably the eastern face of the island. The spot where the sea immediately gave way to rugged cliffs and mountains, filled with cave after cave.

They would never find them in one single cave. The thought of taking Hiccup there was a good one, but Snotlout was still Snotlout; he was still dumb enough to give away their position by lighting a fire at the mouth of the cave.

Hiccup's leg was beginning to ache. The fingers of his right hand scraped silently at the rock wall beside him, his mind racing for answers. What to do? How to get out of this mess, if Snotlout wasn't going to fall asleep? If Hiccup sat down, he wouldn't be able to get back up; he had lost the motivational fluid that had spurred him to his foot before. If he stood, his leg would eventually tire and he would _have_ to sit. And if he did anything else, Snotlout would find out that he was out of the hole, and come drag him back to it.

Or do something much worse. Vivid memories of the initial attack swam into Hiccup's mind, flooding his conscious thought with panic. He did _not_ want to experience that kind of pain again. He didn't want to cry or scream or struggling. He wanted to bury himself against Toothless's side and feel safe again.

Snotlout shook from his trance, suddenly, when a sneeze erupted from his mouth. Hiccup jumped, terrified, and nearly lost his balance. His leg ached.

"Ugh..." the elder boy grumbled, wiping his face with the back of his arm. He sniffled grotesquely and spat into the dirt beside him. The fish he had been holding over the flames was burnt to a shriveled black crisp, and the sight of his made him swear angrily. Hiccup watched him fling it into a blind spot before the soft growl of a dragon reached his ears.

His Nightmare was there.

_Great, that's it, I'm screwed,_ Hiccup thought, dread flooding his system. _I might as well crawl back into the hole and avoid getting hurt at all-_

"I don't know what's wrong with me," Snotlout growled, suddenly. Hiccup froze and pushed himself against the wall, praying his leg wouldn't give out. His breath caught in his throat for a terrible moment before he realized that Snotlout was speaking to either the dragon or himself.

"I _hated_ him up until... You know."

A disgusted sigh. Snotlout kicked his foot at the dirt beside the fire.

"And now look at me! I'm-... I'm obsessed with _Hiccup!_ That little rat!"

Hiccup peeked around the corner then, hesitantly, and caught Snotlout just in time to see him leap to his feet.

"Well fuck this," he said, glaring into the fire. Hiccup's eyes widened a bit as he came to the realization that Snotlout was leaving the fire.

"I'm not going to waste all that effort and just sit here." Snotlout spat into the flames and turned, stocking toward the cave.

Hiccup pushed into the wall on instinct, his green eyes followed Snotlout as he approached. Sheer, unadulterated terror welled up inside of him.

"I'm going to go 'play' with him. Stay here."

The Nightmare cooed in response. Snotlout was two feet, one foot, a half a foot away. His shoulder brushed Hiccup's upper back before he finally noticed the smaller male beside him. Snotlout, in response, leapt about two feet away, spinning to face Hiccup, who turned and pushed his back into the wall.

They held eye contact, sharing the loudest silence that either of them had ever experienced. The cold seemed to settle between them as they stared at one another, both shocked, before Snotlout pulled a look of anger onto his face.

"What the hell do you think _you're_ doing, Hic-"

He didn't finish. As he drew close to the smaller male with outstretched hands, Hiccup's fist shot forward in an unexpected act of self-defense, slamming almost directly into Snotlout's face.

Even through the cast, Hiccup could feel the bristle of Snotlout's nose morphing around his weak fist. The shock of his actions and their results kept Hiccup frozen in place as Snotlout stumbled back, two hands flying to his face. Blood seemed to be everywhere, suddenly, running down from the broken nose over his mouth and across his chin. It streaked through his fingers and dribbled down his neck.

Hiccup just stared.

He hadn't expected to do anything. His mind had been blank when Snotlout was advancing on him. What had he done? Why did he _do_that?

"You-" Snotlout gagged, dropping his hands for a moment before lifting them back up. The wet burgundy on either set of fingers glinted in the moonlight.

"Awe _dead_."

--x--

AAGH I hate long school weeks that go uninterrupted by stupid holidays. I'm sorry this took so long, then. But hey, who _doesn't_ want to read Hiccup torture? I KNOW I HAVE YOU HOOKED, DON'T LIE TO ME.

Please Review!


	9. Astrid Plans

Wow I haven't been home sick in **forever**. I feel gross. ; ; So I updated! Isn't it wonderful how things work out so poorly for me, and yet you guys get an update out of it?

I feel like I have a note for you guys... Um... Oh! Okay, this is important, so please read: I know that you know that Snotlout get's... Well, turned on (for lack of a better term,) when he hurts Hiccup. And I don't want it to go far, and it won't, but I feel like I could better get a hold of the story I want to tell is there's some... erotic content? _Not rape_, or anything like that. Nothing too extreme. But definitely bordering on that something sexual. And again, this is all _very_ one-sided.

BUT I'm not sure if I'm going to go for it. So I'll leave it up to you guys: to sexytime, or not to sexytime? Let me know in a review!

Enjoy. :3

--x--

_Chapter nine - in which they get their bearings._

Hiccup dropped.

By some odd miracle, his muscles gave out in harmony with one another, dragging his weight to the cave floor just in time to miss Snotlout's swinging fist. Knuckles connected to rock with a painful, dull sound that can only be made by bruising flesh, before Snotlout lept back, shocked that he had missed. He shook his fist, distracted by the momentary pain of punching a wall, before he looked back down for Hiccup.

He was gone.

Something crossed between him and the fire, causing a momentary lapse of light in Snotlout's peripheral vision. Spinning around toward it, he found Hiccup hopping awkwardly toward the small bundle of fur that had been beside Snotlout as he sat before the fire. The silver foot of his metal leg stuck out of it, glinting in the light.

Snotlout threw himself toward the younger male just as Hiccup tossed his weight toward the bundle. His emerald eyes were set on the leg only, his heart racing as his fingers found the cold steel and began to pry it free. It appeared to be wrapped in his vest and a fur he recognized from his home. If he couldn't get that leg, then he couldn't run. If he couldn't run, he was left to be the victim of Snotlout's rage. And that was the last thing he wanted.

A large hand found his arm, clasping it by the elbow and tugging him back from the furs. Hiccup spluttered, flailing against Snotlout's grip before turning suddenly, leg in hand. With a blank mind and a racing heart, he swung the device with more strength then he knew he had, catching Snotlout upside the head. His arm was released and he dropped back down to the earth, landing and pausing only for a second to watch Snotlout stumble back again.

Hiccup didn't watch as the larger teen moaned and stumbled. Moving as quickly as accuracy would allow, he pulled the leg around and hooked it back to where it rightfully belonged before pushing himself to his feet again.

The balance was odd, as was the weight of the thing hanging from his knee. He took a few steps backward to adjust his equilibrium before stopping and lifting his eyes.

Snotlout was holding the side of his head, leaning with one hand on his knee. He was still, standing there breathing carefully. He didn't look like he was about to attack.

Carefully, Hiccup took a step forward.

"Snotlout?" he asked, his voice breaking the silence that their heavy breathing had previously occupied. He reached a hand out like he would if he were approaching an untamed dragon. The elder didn't move, his eyes hidden behind his bangs and protruding eyebrows.

"'Listen, I'm sorry I hit you, okay? But... I mean, _fuck_, 'Lout, you've _lost_ it-"

He had been taking small steps forward as he spoke, unaware that Snotlout had been waiting for him to get just a _little_ closer. As Hiccup's feet padded into his view, the larger male snapped his head upright, and lunged.

His body smashed directly into Hiccup's slight frame, pounding down on top of him as they landed. The little Haddock cried out, shocked, before the full weight of Snotlout's form crushed the air from his lungs. In a haze of terror, his arms were pinned over his head forcedly, his broken arm throbbing inside its cast.

He regained his breath in time for Snotlout's face to appear directly before his. The elder male was glaring venomously, his breath wheezing in and out through his broken nose. The blood on his lower face was joined by a small trickle running down from his hairline, only amplifying his terrifying visage.

"Ah! Ah, okay, wait," Hiccup stammered, pulling desperately to free his arms. His chest heaved in and out in quick, shallow breaths, so fast that it began to ache almost immediately. Snotlout's now-crooked nose pressed against Hiccup's, and the smaller male shut up instantly.

"_Shut up_. If I want you to speak, I'll ask you a fucking question."

Hiccup's eyes were wide, tears flowing up from under his lower eyelids and spilling down his temples. He could feel them sliding along the shell of his ears before they dripped onto the ground beneath his head. Snotlout watched him for a still minute before a smile, distorted and insane, spread across his face. Hiccup felt his pupils shrink at the sight.

"Why are you so scared? We're going to have _so much fun_ together, Hiccup."

--x--

"I can't take this anymore," Astrid growled, leaning forward from her spot atop a large mead barrel. The main hall was packed with people, all of whom were trying to speak at once. When one finally gained the floor, they would listen for only a short time before someone disagreed with the proposed plan, and they would all start up again.

"Why isn't Stoic doing anything?" Ruffnut asked, glaring over her brother's head toward the man. His eyes were lost in shadows and he appeared deep in thought.

"I just can't believe Snotlout lost it like this," Tuffnut muttered. He pushed off of the wall, where the small group of friends had huddled in the corner, and took a strong stance. "What the hell could he be planning?"

"It doesn't matter," Astrid replied, shaking her head and pushing off of the barrel. With both her and Tuffnut standing, Ruffnut and Fishlegs were prompted to their feet as well. They huddled, in a sense, and leaned toward one another to hear each other speak.

"Whatever Snotlout is thinking," Astrid continued, "he's not going to get away with it. Even if Hiccup was a useless little squeeb just last year, we all _care_ about him now. And I say _we_ go get him back."

Fishlegs was the first to display a physical reaction to the proposal. "Um... not that I disagree," he started, glancing worriedly over his shoulder, "but all the adults could do a better job then us, right?"

"They needed us to beat the Green Death, didn't they?" Ruffnut said with a roll of the eyes. "I think we can handle this."

Astrid felt a small smile tug at her lips before her thoughts shifted to vague memories of Hiccup after Toothless had brought him back a few nights ago. The smile faded at the image of his bruised form, limp and shivering. She could hear, in the back of her mind, the small moans he made as they tried to bandage him up.

The others saw the distant look in Astrid's eyes and fell quiet. They all had been there, at some point that night, and after the silence had stretched out too long, Tuffnut decided not to think of it.

"Listen," he tried, "Snotlout hates flying over water. And so does his Nightmare. So they couldn't have gone to another island, unless he really _is_ insane."

Astrid snapped out of it, thankful for the input. "That's right. Where on Berk could he have taken Hiccup that would be hidden-"

They all fell still for a brief minute, Astrid's thoughts cut off as realization set it.

"... The caves?" Fishlegs muttered, desperation flooding his eyes.

"We'll _never_ find them there!" Ruffnut exclaimed. "There _has_ to be another place."

"No." Astrid's eyes hardened just a bit, gazing back toward Stoic once again. The chief hadn't moved. "No, he took him to the caves. That's why Stoic can't figure out what to do."

The Thorston twins tossed up their arms at roughly the same time, twirling to show their disgust with the situation. Through their chorus of "Great, now what?" and "Fuck it, he's a goner," Astrid turned toward Fishlegs with an interested smile.

"Do you think Toothless could smell Hiccup from far away, if we got close enough to where he was?"

The large teen looked from his feet to her face nervously before steadying himself. "Yeah... Why?"

The twins stopped, looking toward her curiously. She smiled a bit.

"Because I can do what Stoic can't. I can ride Toothless."

--x--

I don't see this working out very well for Astrid, but we'll see how Toothless takes the idea. Also, Hiccup is screwed. Sorry about that.

Please Review!


	10. Toothless Flies

HEY NERDS. Okay, so, I'm obviously super super sorry that it took this long to update, but now that I'm out of school for the summer, I don't have to worry about projects or finals or any of that crap. So installments will hopefully be more frequent. The story isn't _that_ much longer, at least.

-x-

_Chapter ten - in which the relationship shifts._

He was dizzy. A blur of light rocked back and forth somewhere beside him, leaving a trail of dimming gold in its wake. His eyelids, half open, fluttered weakly before he closed them, a fragile sound escaping from the back of his throat.

The world titled around him curiously as he felt something scoop his body off the ground, high into the black sky. His arms and legs swayed limply, regardless of his attention at regaining control over his own body. In a final fit of struggle, Hiccup strained to lift his head, catching only a glimpse of Snotlout's bloodied face before his strength left him again.

The elder stood carefully, minding Hiccups neck long enough for the younger boy to keep his equilibrium. The darkening spot on the corner of Hiccups forehead had started to bleed where Snotlout had punched him, and in the light of the fire it made Snotlout's skin crawl. Moving back into the cave, he carried his prey like a newly-wed bride, cradling his vulnerable body as if it were a lifeline. His fingers twitched, clasping and unclasping the fabric of Hiccup's shirt as he walked, until finally the dark rock tunnel revealed to him the pit Hiccup had struggled out of.

Standing in the small column of moonlight from a crack above, Snotlout's hard eyes considered the unconscious face in his arms. Even bruised, with shadows bordering swollen eyes and lips cracked with dehydration, the same word still fit: beautiful. And even though he was right there, in his arms, Hiccup still seemed untouchable. He didn't seem like something Snotlout could own.

Disturbed by this sudden thought, Snotlout simply relaxed his arms, letting Hiccup drop unceremoniously into the hole. The solid _thump_ of his landing drew Snotlout into a sitting position on the ledge, where he looked own through the darkness and studied the shape Hiccup had landed in. It didn't seem to have caused any visible damage, and realistically, the hole wasn't _that_ deep. Just deep enough to keep a runt like Hiccup from getting out.

Or so he had thought. Snotlout wrinkled his nose and glared down at the younger boy, willing him to wake up and beg for forgiveness. Instead, Hiccup just lay there, out cold. Snotlout snorted to himself and, for lack of something productive to do, spat on his hostage bitterly.

-x-

"Tooth- Toothless! Please, I'm not going to do anything Hiccup wouldn't do!"

A black wing shot out over her head, a few strands of blond hair lifting gently in the breeze it created. She ducked, tucking down toward the ground as Toothless swung the other wing overhead.

"Toothless, stop!" She cried, looking wildly around behind her. "For the love of _Odin_, Ruff, hurry up!"

The Night Fury continued to thrash, rumbling cries erupting from the depths of his chest. His clawed feet pounded and clawed at the hard earth as he spun in circles, doing everything in his power to display his unwillingness to cooperate. Ruffnut darted forward out of the brush, her arms extended before her with a familiar looking object, it's yellow and black stripes swaying to and fro. Toothless caught the thing in the corner of his eye and, after a full turn to expect it, froze stiff on the spot.

There was a pause, in which Astrid slowly stood, her hands up to protect herself should Toothless attack. Ruffnut inched forward, holding the eel toward Toothless, who backed away until he caught the scent of more. Turning sharply, he found Tuffnut behind him and Fishlegs beside him, each with their own. On his open flank, Astrid appeared with her hands up in a gesture of peace.

"I didn't want to bring out the eels, Toothless, but you need to listen."

A draconic screech of panic was forming somewhere in the back of Toothless's throat. He turned, shuddering, in a complete circle, but everywhere he turned he was met with an eel.

"Hiccup is in great danger, Night Fury," Astrid continued, taking on a serious tone that reclaimed the dragon's attention. "The only way to get to him is for you to smell him out, and you'll need me to help you fly. So _please_ stop _freaking out_ and let me on?"

Toothless stared at her with eyes dilated in fear. He turned, sharply, and looked toward the eels, but they had vanished; the humans were resorting to trust at such an odd time, it seemed. Turning his pale green hues back toward the blonde girl, the Night Fury snorted several times through his nostrils before setting his mighty jaw and collapsing down onto his belly. Astrid dropped her hands tiredly and moved toward him, pained by the distress in his eyes. Her fingers found his nose, followed by her palm. She squat down, her eyes never once leaving his.

"I know you're worried. We all are. But we have to work together to get him back. Okay?"

He stared at her a moment before flicking his head toward the harness on his back, prompting her to smile. "Thanks, Toothless."

The twins helped her up and began to argue about who should follow her first, while Fishlegs managed to find away for her full foot to fit where Hiccup's hook normally would.

"Just flex your heal backward to slow down, and forwards to speed up. It'll be different then flying a normal dragon, you know," he was saying. She listened impatiently, aware that his advice would be important; after all, he had helped Hiccup modify the saddle several times. Then, as the other teens backed away, Astrid gripped on to the leather handles of the saddle and leaned forward. Toothless stood, alive with nervous energy, and moved backward a few paces.

"I'll be right behind you," Tuffnut called, raising his hand into his air only to have it smacked down immediately by his sister.

"We _all_ will," Ruffnut growled, peeved that her brother would try to steal their glory for himself. Astrid nodded.

"When we get there," she started, "be sure to stay quiet. That means you two need to shut the hell up. Just follow wherever Toothless goes and keep up."

She was answered with muted agreement. "And remember," Astrid added bitterly, "his Nightmare is just that: a nightmare. So don't think it won't attack you just because it doesn't know you."

-x-

He could hear a bird. It was horribly off tune and seemed to have all the breath in the world, but it was a bird. Hiccup tried to open his eyes, finding that they were plastered shut with fatigue and dried tears. But that bird... it kept singing. As he gradually became more aware of where he was, his eyelids began to part, revealing to him a familiar rock wall. Glancing toward his feet, he found another, and up above his head, another still. He looked up. Blackness, a column of light, cave.

He was back in the hole.

He-... But.. How? How did he get back down here? Perhaps he had dreamed it all. Maybe he had just imagined that bravery, and that drive to save himself. Maybe Hiccup had just fallen asleep.

But that didn't explain all the new aches he had. Moving hurt, but the more of it he did, the more the pain began to focus on certain areas; his arm, his head, his chest. He shifted onto his back awkwardly, imagining that the soft plush of his mattress would be beneath him instead of stone.

And then it hit him. Why was there a bird in this cave? Especially one so loud and terrible sounding. Hiccup opened his mouth, drawing air into his aching lungs and holding it for a minute before he found the will to speak.

"Hello?" His voice was cracked and raspy, but it was loud enough to make the bird stop. After a small silence, he heard footsteps that sped up in tune with his beating heart before suddenly, Snotlout was standing above him, peering down over the ledge. He looked at the Haddock boy a minute before a smile appeared on his bruised face.

"Well wouldn't ya' know it, cripple," he said, "since you fucked up my nose, I can whistle now. Looks like I owe ya' one."

The sarcasm was enough to make Hiccup squeeze his eyes shut; it _hadn't_been a dream. Stiffly, and with great effort, Hiccup pushed himself up into a sitting position and scooted back against the wall. He had almost no strength in his legs, and so he resorted to letting them drag along after him. Relaxing his back slowly and wincing, Hiccup looked back up again, eyes widening as Snotlout shifted and jumped down into the hole, landing solidly on both his feet.

"Now," he said, a smile curling onto his face, "tell me why I shouldn't take advantage of this situation."

-x-

And this brings us to the start of the action-packed climax. D:

Please Review!


	11. Astrid Attacks

HEY NERDS.

What can I say? Real life is so intrusive, I hardly have time to write anymore. But since the release of HTTYD on DVD, the favs, alerts and reviews have returned, and I can't allow myself to be that jerk who never finishes a good story. (If it's any good.) So here you guys go! Also:

**I hearby swear to complete this story, wether it takes me a week or a month or a year. But preferably one of the former.**

You can exhale now. :)

-x—

_Chapter Eleven – In which help arrives_.

Her heart was quaking, her mind racing. Adrenaline pumped through every artery, vein and capillary in her system, making her fingers quiver as she clutched the saddle below her. Silently, the night air blew past, parting for the night fury as it soon would for the other dragons following them.

Far below, the rugged coast undulated and flowed as they passed overhead. Jagged cliff faces shone in the moonlight, the occasional tail of a solitary dragon hanging from an orifice. The farther along they traveled, the move caves they would spot. Peppered into the rocks, it was almost as if someone had scoured them out individually, in desperate search of something important.

_Not unlike us_, Astrid thought fleetingly as Toothless began to back left, following the curve of the island's edge. Surging forward, the dragon's ears flexed and twitched. His nostrils flared, desperately huffing in each breath in hopes of picking up Hiccup's sent.

"It'll be alright, Toothless," Astrid muttered, patting the side of his head. Though she wasn't certain of her own words, hearing them out loud seemed to help her think rationally. Hiccup was around here somewhere, and Toothless would find him.

A large pillar came into view around the bend, coming between them and their destination. Astrid leaned forward some, silently requesting that they perch atop the huge rock column. If they had a moment to pause and survey the area, they would be better prepared for an attack.

Behind her, Fishlegs and the twins followed closely. Their dragons huffed a bit, but the silent, tense composure of the night fury kept them quiet. When Toothless touched down onto the rock, he began to climb up over the ledge immediately, slowly peaking over the top of the jagged rock.

Below them, spread out along a gigantic hillside, was a terrain of potholes and cave mouths. A seemingly endless amount of them looked back at Astrid as she lowered down against Toothless's back, as Hiccup had done the all that time back in the Queen's den. For the fraction of a moment, a sense of hopelessness swelled in her gut, before she spotted the trail of smoke in the moonlight. It led down from the clear sky to a very specific, wide cave mouth.

A monstrous nightmare was curled before it.

"That idiot," Ruffnut sighed, her head of the zippleback snaking up beside Astrid. "He didn't think to _not_ light a fire outside of the cave he chose?"

"Be thankful he did," Astrid replied, her eyes dropping down to Toothless. The night fury had started in on a low growl, his body shifting nervously. He wanted to take off and make a beeline for the cave; and he wouldn't wait much longer to do it.

Astrid set her jaw. "Alright. Ruff, Tuff: you guys draw the nightmare out of there. Try not to hurt her, but don't let her come back. Fishlegs, you'll be their backup. Guard the cave mouth once they're gone."

The three other teens all muttered their agreement. Slowly, Astrid drew a breath into her lungs. Her warrior instincts began to take over, renewing the adrenaline that pulsed through her veins.

"I'm going for Snotlout. He's not getting away with this."

Fishlegs leaned foward a bit, his graceless gronkle huffing impatiently. "Um... What if Hiccup is too hurt to fly back with us?"

Astrid's eyes flashed at him dangerously, a sense of hurt and panic echoing in the blue pools. "Don't say that."

The twins exchanged a glance. After a moment of unsteady silence, Astrid drew another deep breath and leaned forward.

"Alright. Let's go."

-x-

There was something to be said for accumulated agony. The blow to his head that had rendered him so useless during his escape attempt had already begun to lose it's effect. First he regained use of his arms, then his legs, then his sight. He started to move again, as best as he could.

But the stockpile of other injuries hadn't lost their power over him. Every motion he made in his own defense echoed with agony from his arm, his chest, his head. He was sweating with fever, his throat was too sore to scream, his limbs shook with fatigue. Snotlout stood before him for a moment, grinning in such a way that Hiccup could have sworn dropped the temperature of the cave even lower. As the elder stalked forward, Hiccup could only flinch away.

"Lout, please," he rasped, sinking into himself as Snotlout squat before him. "Don't."

"Don't what?" A hand reached out, sliding into Hiccup's messy hair and giving it a tug. "You gunna tell me what to do now?"

Hiccup closed his eyes tightly and made an effort to turn his head away. He could feel the fear blend with anger, his rational half pleading with him to fight back. But his physical self was too weak; even making a fist took effort that he didn't have.

He felt hot breath on the side of his face. Snotlout loomed closer and closer, his body slowly engulfing Hiccup's. The smaller male heard the sound of air drawing into Snotlout's broken nose as he took a deep breath of Hiccup's scent, his stomach churning with the possibilities at his fingertips. His large, meaty hand settled against Hiccup's side, sliding along, feeling him. The smaller teen could only squirm, flinching and expecting more pain.

"Don't," he hissed, his voice cracked to the point of uselessness. He felt the hand on his head give his hair another sharp tug.

"Shut up," Snotlout spat, baring his teeth against the side of Hiccup's neck. His lips felt along the smooth skin, searching for a place to bite down. Hiccup twisted pathetically, somehow finding the strength to press his good hand against Snotlout's chest; anything to get him off. His head throbbed, drilling along painfully. The rush of blood to his head made him dizzy, his ability to see failing him for the briefest of moments.

Snotlout grinned and bit him. His broad teeth popped through Hiccup's skin, sinking into his flesh a small way before the blood welled into his mouth. It was brackish and warm, after all the work he had done to arrive at that moment, it was all Snotlout wanted to taste. Hiccup gave a thin, crushed groan and twisted, trying in vain to break contact with his neck and Snotlout's mouth.

Somewhere in the distant recesses of the cave, Hiccup heard a thrashing sound. As Snotlout's hand sank lower down his bruised body, the noise became louder, carried by echoes along the cave walls. Snotlout seemed more interested in devouring the side of Hiccup's neck. He it it again, harder, sucking hard on the flesh. Hiccup gasped, squirmed, groaned. His voice grew increasingly loud as Snotlout bit him again and again, trailing teeth marks along his previously unmarked skin.

That's when he heard the roar. It was deafening, nearly blinding. Hiccup cried out in response, his head reeling and aching. Snotlout somehow detached from him, spinning around in time to catch the brunt of Astrid's tackle with his chest. He was shoved back, pinned down. Fists beat against his face several times before he had the wherewithal to defend himself, so shocked that someone else was there.

Hiccup rolled away, his good hand reaching up and pressing against the side of his neck. Tears bit at the corners of his eyes, trying to overwhelm his weakened mind. He slumped to the rock floor, lying on his side and curling slightly. Everything was throbbing; everything hurt.

Astrid reared back, flipping off of Snotlout and landing in a battle-ready stance. Her eyes shot back toward Hiccup wildly, her chest heaving. Rage and fear swept over her, seeing him heaped on the floor like that, hardly conscious.

Snotlout hefted himself to his feet and wiped his forearm across his face, clearing some of the blood from his re-broken nose. He looked shocked, and feral. His eyes shifted from Hiccup to Astrid before a glint of possessive rage flashed through his pupils.

"Snotlout, what the _fuck_," Astrid growled, taking a protective step toward Hiccup to show that she wasn't going to let the elder male near him. She was answered with a growl.

"Jealous, Astrid?" Snotlout chided, his hands rolling into fists. "Not so fun when someone _steals your love interest_, huh?"

Astrid felt the muscles in her arms tighten. "What are you _talking_ about?"

Snotlout flashed her a morbid grin. "He's _mine_ now, bitch. And if you're going to get in my way, then you're options are to either join him or be thrown off the cliffs."

The blond opened her mouth, a fiery and passionate _fuck you_ burning at the tip of her tongue. Before the words could pass her lips, something large and black swept into the ditch from above, and both her and Snotlout turned to see it.

Savage green eyes flashed wildly at the two of them before a pained, awful roar shook the walls of the cave. It died into a sorrowful whimper as large black wings carefully tented over Hiccup's collapsed form. Toothless gathered him up as best as his short forelegs would allow, blocking Hiccup from view.

Astrid's glare softened. Toothless had no interest in Snotlout after all he had done; only that he wanted to relieve Hiccup of his pain. Silence gripped the cave then, punctuated by a slow, steady rumble from the depths of Toothless's chest. Astrid relaxed a bit, confident that the odds were too stacked against Snotlout for him to do anything. When she looked back around, he had backed up against the wall, his eyes wide.

He hadn't expected Toothless. A grin slowly spread on the blond's face, confident and exhausted.

"You're done, Snotlout."

-x-

So, what, like... Two more chapters after this? I think so. I'll try to get this story all wrapped up by the end of the week, because no one likes having to wait for months in between updates. And I've already been an ass about updating, so I'll do my best. D: See you then?

Please review!


	12. Nobody Speaks

Holy shit. 

Okay, so, a very sincere tip of my hat to those of you who have reviewed recently. Your frustration over a lack of update is completely justified, and I have no other excuse besides Life and College. 

Looking at it now... Goddamn, I was still in high school the last time I updated this. Cheesus Christ, okay. Yeah, I'm with you guys, I hate me too. I was originally planning on ending the cave-scene with the last chapter but fuck it, let's reward ourselves with some more violence and creeper!Snotlout, we've earned it.

(You've earned it. I'm still an asshole. Sorry!)

-x- 

Green eyes peered at him through the blackness, there and then gone again. Hiccup tried to find them, tried to open his eyes and catch another glimpse, but the floor twirled beneath him and water filled his ears. The blackness was building up between him and whatever was going on in the cave; try as he might, he couldn't seem to get through it. 

Something was scooping him up, and he felt a harsh, delightful warmth fall against him. His body ached, numbed with the increasing black. He had no voice left to moan with, no strength to move. His nerves pinched with fever, causing a sort of rolling static across his muscles. But that warmth, that persistent wall of coarse heat, pressed against him. It kept part of him anchored to the other side of the black, the side with Snotlout and the cave. It kept him from falling into the black completely. 

Then, he heard his name, and it startled him. Someone was talking, someone new. The voice didn't have the same rasp that Snotlout's did, the same huff through a broken nose. It was higher, strained, feminine.

He thought, for a moment, that it was his mother.

If she was standing deeper within the blackness, calling to him, then should he answer? Should he let go of the cave, the wall of warmth he felt, and go to her? He wondered if maybe that would mean dying, and he wasn't sure if that scared him or not. He wanted Toothless, and his father, and his friends. He wanted to hold on to what he had. But he was so cold, and he hurt so much. And he missed his mother, then more than ever, and the voice was persistent. _Hiccup_, it said. It sounded frightened.

But his mother had never been frightened, not the way he remembered her. She had always stood up for him, had always told his father to let him be. _He's every bit the viking you are, Stoic,_ she would say when they both thought Hiccup was asleep in his room. _Just you wait and see._

The fear in this voice, the one on the other side of the black, stirred Hiccup from his numb state. He flinched, watching the black drain away. The big green eyes came back, staring at him desperately. They were set in a black face, a familiar pattern of scales between them. Warm breath hit his face with a huff of relief. 

"-'d be doing you a _favor_ by killing you right here and now," the voice said. It was stronger now, the fear rattled by anger, by growing confidence. Hiccup stared at the green eyes for a long moment before his own eyes widened, recognition suddenly catching up with him. 

"Tooth," he managed with an exhale. The green eyes widened, ears lifting up straight on either side of Toothless's head. Hiccup tried to look toward the voice, disoriented again now that he recognized his dragon. It felt so out of place for Toothless to be there that Hiccup could hardly imagine who else had showed up in the cave. Where was Snotlout? 

Toothless was supporting Hiccups head with his forearm, awkwardly trying to keep him off the cold cave floor. From where he was lying, he could make out Snotlout up against the wall, with Astrid facing him. She had an axe ready in her grip, poised to strike.

Hiccup couldn't make sense of what was going on. Even with the pieces before him, he couldn't wrap his mind around the new situation he was suddenly in. The side of his neck was sticky with blood, drawn from the bite marks Snotlout had only just been leaving. How had he suddenly wound up with Toothless hunkered over him? 

He watched, disoriented, as Snotlout pushed away from the cave wall defiantly. It was dark in the space, suddenly confined with three people and a dragon, but if Hiccup couldn't see Snotlout raise his hand up to his lips, then he certainly could hear the shrill whistle that pierced his eardrums. He flinched, and Toothless's wings spread around him, shielding him from view.

"I decide when this is over," Snotlout said, somewhere on the other side of Toothless's leathery wing. Hiccup rolled his head around to look at the Night Fury, searching for some idea of what was going on, but Toothless wasn't looking at him any more. His ears were sticking upright, listening. He looked nervous.

"Your Nightmare is out for the count, the twins made sure of that." Astrid had taken a few steps closer, it sounded. She was anxious, despite her claim, even Hiccup could pick up on that. He made some ill-fated attempt at sitting up, but it was so ineffective that even Toothless didn't seem to notice. 

"I wouldn't be so sure." Snotlout's voice wasn't any closer, but the amount of confidence compared to Astrid's made Hiccup slump with hopelessness. Something was wrong.

His concerns were confirmed within the same breath, when an angry, bitter cry echoed it's way into the cave. He couldn't see anything, only roll his head and wince. He tried again to get Toothless's attention, but his voice had finally slipped away with the last time he had said the dragon's name. When he opened his mouth, there was nothing but a thin exhale. The blackness welled back up, coaxing him into silence, creeping across his peripheral vision like spider webs. 

He wouldn't be awake much longer. 

On the other side of Toothless's wing, Astrid refused to look away from Snotlout. Her composure was compromised. Not just with the threat of an advancing Nightmare-she had never been one to shy away from a dragon fight. But her mind kept tunneling back to Hiccup, somewhere behind her. She could hardly keep her focus on Snotlout; if she let herself look away toward the mouth of the cave, she might lose her focus entirely.

It seemed that this is what Snotlout was waiting for, an opportunity to strike at her vulnerability. They had butted heads as children, competed to be the best, and even when Astrid began to come out on top, Snotlout was not without his own talents. She had no illusions that he was a shoddy fighter; she would need all her wits if she was going to engage him one on one, and Hiccup was her weakness. Her mind raced, trying to figure out how to handle the situation before her. She needed more time.

Somewhere near the mouth of the cave, Fishleg's voice cried out, carrying into the cavern along with a Nightmare's roar. Dull light blazed off the walls, even as deep as where they were, while the beast released a gulp of fire at whoever was trying to fight it off. Astrid could sense Toothless behind her, shifting, unsure what to do. Stay and shield Hiccup, or fight off the oncoming threat? 

The Nightmare roared again, closer this time, and Astrid made up her mind. Lowering her center of gravity, Astrid hefted her axe into a ready position and set her teeth.

"Toothless," she called over the clamour of the advancing Nightmare, "fight that thing off. Protect Hiccup with everything you have." 

Snotlout's eyebrows lowered into a glare, unsatisfied with Astrid's decision. He moved forward, fists clenched, while Toothless eased Hiccup onto the rocky floor and turned. In the pulse of a second, Toothless turned and aimed a shot of fire at the entrance to the cavern. As the head of a Nightmare burst through, sound and fire amplified in the rounded space, Toothless blasted in directly in the face.

The Nightmare's roar drowned out the sounds of Snotlout and Astrid engaging one another. Astrid moved with her best swing, but it was one that Snotlout knew from years of training together. He dodged, the weight of the axe preventing Astrid from correcting quickly enough. She ducked his fist and brought her shoulder into his solar plexus-he grabbed at her arm and leg and tried to flip her over, but she rolled off his upper back and landed on her feet, the axe rotating around behind her and swinging in Snotlout's direction. He dodged, rolled, and came up between Astrid and Hiccup. 

Toothless was leveling accurate, fast bursts of fire at the Nightmare, who was screeching in agony and frustration as it struggled to get into the cave. Never once did Toothless move more than three feet away from Hiccup, his wings spread wide to shelter him from heat and stray flames. He swept his tail around, catching Snotlout in the last instant and pushing him away. Astrid lunged at him, axe swinging viciously in the light of the fire, but Snotlout tumbled and brought a foot up into her hip. They continued at close range, making broad dangerous arcs with the axe until a gap grew between them, and Astrid saw the Nightmare was almost entirely inside the cave. With a cry of frustration, she twisted her body in a complete circle to build up momentum and flung her weapon at the Nightmare's head.

She didn't bother to see if it connected-the screech from behind her was all she needed. Snotlout looked surprised, almost panicked at the sight of the axe hitting his dragon, but Astrid didn't think twice about it. She dove, grabbing his forearm as he tried to punch her and swinging around to deliver a punch to his face. The sound of Toothless shooting one more shot shook the cavern, and Snotlout fell hard into the floor.

In the string of echoes that followed, things seemed to slow down. Astrid watched Snotlout with a crazed, bloodthirsty look in her eyes. Blond hair fell into her face, sticking to sweat and blood from a scrape on her forehead. Her chest heaved, breaths moving through clenched teeth. Behind her, the Monstrous Nightmare lay dead on the cave floor, a large gash between it's eyes. Tendrils of smoke and dying fire curled off of it's body, and as the flames died, the light began to leave the cavern. Astrid stepped forward, her eyes never faltering, never leaving Snotlout's face. Then she lifted her foot and brought it down against his forehead, and Snotlout fell still, unconscious.

-x- 

The flight home was silent. They had laid Hiccup along Toothless's back, Astrid straddling him, standing in the saddle and holding onto the handles, using her arms and thighs to keep Hiccup in place. The wind had died to a gentle breeze, so all Toothless had to do was glide, riding a gust of westward wind back toward Berk.

Fishlegs' gronckle carried the weight of both his injured rider and an unconscious Snotlout. The twins took up the flank, watching Fishleg's back in case Snotlout woke up and tried anything.

No one spoke, because no one knew what to say. They didn't know what to say about Hiccup, or about about Snotlout. They didn't know what to say about the dead Nightmare that lay in a smouldering heap in the cave. They didn't know what to say about what would happen once they got home. Aside from a quiet "be gentle" when they were adjusting Hiccup on Toothless's back, no one said much of anything. 

Astrid stared straight ahead, because she was afraid of looking down. Her mind kept going back to that afternoon when she and Hiccup had spoken one on one, when he was recovering in bed. He had said something, that came back to her so suddenly that she almost looked down at him.

_"I've been acting like a victim my entire life." _He said it like it was something silly, something that didn't need to be said aloud because everyone already knew. But he had worked so hard, had sacrificed so much, to shed the title of 'victim'. He had saved the entire village, had _earned_ the title to hero. There was nothing about Hiccup that was victimized. And now... 

Snotlout had put him right back there. Hiccup would spend the winter months recovering, bedridden and sick. People would say his name in the context of what Snotlout had put him through, not because he had saved everyone. They would talk about his being abducted, being treated so poorly. The son of the chief, they'd say, kidnapped and beaten to near death in a cave.

A shudder erupted down Astrid's spine and she finally looked down, eyes settling on Hiccup's bruised face. _Near death_. That's what he would be remembered for, all this drama and tragedy. Not that he had saved everyone, not for being a hero. 

It dawned on her that Snotlout had been successful. He was jealous of Hiccup's success and wanted to take it away from him, and now part of Hiccup's reputation would always be as a victim. The thought should have made her angry, and it would have, if she was still watching the coastline drift by in the moonlight. But staring at Hiccup's face silenced the anger. It silenced everything.

Somehow, if she looked at him the right way, the bruises looked like shadows. Hiccup looked like his old self, for short moments. No shadows under his eyes, no blue lips, no gaunt cheeks. Just Hiccup. She waited a beat to see if he would smile and open his eyes, but he didn't. She sighed, gently, and closed her eyes for a second, the urge to cry creeping up behind her eyelids. 

"Astrid."

She blinked, startled. When she looked down, there were those green eyes, dulled with exhaustion. "Hiccup," she breathed, and lowered just a bit, her body only two inches above his. He looked oddly serene, the wind playing with his hair. He stared right at her.

"Am I dead, Astrid," he asked, his voice so gentle and cracked that it broke her heart. A tear glinted away in the moonlight, blown off her lashes by the wind.

"No," she said, ducking her face and resting her cheek against his, her lips beside his ear so he could hear her. "No, Hiccup, you're going to be okay. I've got you."

He didn't say anything for a long moment, and she thought he had lost consciousness again. She kissed his cheek, gently the first time and then again with more desperation. When she lifted her head, he was looking at the stars.

"I'm so tired," he whispered, his eyes glazing. "Everything hurts."

She smiled, exhaling quickly as more tears welled up, sitting on her lashes. "I'd be worried if it didn't," she answered, resting her forehead gently against his. "Just hold on. We're almost home." 

She watched Hiccup close his eyes, and she knew he shouldn't, that she should try to keep him awake, but it seemed astronomically unfair to ask that of him. After all he'd been through, she couldn't bring herself to ask for even a few more minutes. 

Somewhere behind her to the left, Fishlegs cried out. Astrid snapped her head around, eyes widening, expecting anything. Snotlout had been dropped over Meatlug's rear, just behind Fishlegs. His wrists had been bound behind his back, and the gronckle was just wide enough that he wouldn't have been able to overthrow Fishlegs, at least not without alerting the entire island in his attempt. But what Astrid saw when she looked over her shoulder wasn't Fishlegs being attacked. Rather, Snotlout was lifting his head and staring straight at her. 

He looked bizarre. His face was so familiar, had been part of her life for so many years, that she hadn't adapted to knowing him as an enemy just yet. But even with the broken nose and the blood on his face, he still looked like her old friend. What ruined in was the glow of possession, a look that tunneled toward what little of Hiccup he could see. He looked savage, and angry, and defeated. He looked as if he had made a decision.

Astrid watched, mouth hanging open, as Snotlout closed his eyes and rolled off of Meatlug's back. He made no attempt at grabbing hold, no attempt at overthrowing Fishleg's. He simply rolled, and let himself fall.

Fishlegs was trying to understand what had happened, to turn and see what Snotlout was doing, but the twins both saw it. They shouted, horrified and caught off guard, watching as Snotlout plummeted into the black churning ocean beneath. Astrid stared, watching the pale splash fade away behind them. The twins continued to shout, distressed and confused, joined by Fishlegs as he realized what had happened. In her shock, Astrid looked around at Hiccup, whose eyes had closed again.

In the moonlight, he looked beautiful. And she finally understood.

-x- 

I'm going to try for one more chapter, to tie it all together. If you think I'm taking too long publishing said final chapter, my tumblr is DollyRiot. Give me shit for it and I'll deliver.

Thanks in advance for reviews, you guys are the ones who earned these finishing chapters. Keep kickin' ass. 


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